Fort Ringgold, Texas, 
Dec. ?Pth, 1RP? 
The Surgeon General of the Army, 
Washington, D.C. 
Sir: 
In connection with a study of the subject of physical 
training in the Army, the following was prepared to form 
the basis of a report to you upon the subject. In the hope 
of inspiring interest in the topic and eliciting discussion 
and additional information, it was published in the United 
Service for last April, the publisher agreeing to place a 
copy in the hands of every officer in the Army. No further 
facts h8ve teen obtained however in the months that have 
elapsed, and it seems useless to delay longer. Accordingly 
I have the honor to submit the paper as it now stands as a 
s pe ci al report upon 
THE INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL TRAINING UPON THE DEVEL- 
OPMENT OF THE SOLDIER. 
Trusting that the facts brojught together, with their 
deductions, may meet with I remain very res- 
pectfully your obedient , IJ 
Captain, Medical Departrrent, U.S.Army THE 
UNITED SERVICE, 
Edited by L. R. HAMERSLY. 
April 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF THE SOLDIER. 
In looking back over military history, it is interesting to observe how 
much attention has been devoted to the development of the apparatus 
of war,—how the closed fist was supplanted by the club, the club by 
the sword, the sword by the lance and arrow, these by muzzle-loading 
fire-arms, and these again by the rapid-firing, breech-loading weapons 
of to-day, each the product of unceasing, inventive study, and each 
revolutionizing the warfare of its epoch. On the other hand, it is 
startling, in contrast with the interest displayed in weapons, necessarily 
accessories of war, to note how little heed has been given to the de- 
velopment of the most important portion of the military materiel, 
the soldier himself. 
An injured weapon was wont to command all the skill of an ar- 
morer especially trained in the renovation of arms; an injured soldier 
was left to die on the field of battle, or to beg his way through life 
maimed and helpless. The rapier of Toledo or the cimiter of Da- 
mascus received in their manufacture the most skillful treatment, in 
order that they might possess all the qualities required to make them 
excel in the work they were to do. Yet the power that was to wield 
the weapon, without which it was but an inert mass of metal, was 
permitted to make itself, and not rarely to be marred in the making. 
This condition is not without an exception, however, for the schools 
for training the frames of the young Hellenes were the nuclei of 
Grecian life. It was the ambition of every youth to prepare himself to 
excel in battle for his country, and the result made possible the saying 
Vol. VII. N. s.—No. 4. 322 
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April 
that, “ Sparta needs no other bulwarks than the bodies of her sons.” 
The culture of the gymnasium enabled Leonidas and his three hundred 
to hold Thermopylae against the Persian horde, and Xenophon to 
march his ten thousand to the sea, and, by the models of physical 
beauty which it produced, conferred imperishable fame upon the chisel 
of Phidias and the brush of Apelles. Running, leaping, and wrestling 
contributed to the growth of the lower extremities; boxing, throwing 
the discus, and casting the spear educated the chest and upper ex- 
tremities, while the pagination, a combination of boxing and wrestling, 
presented the qualities of both. The state encouraged athletic excel- 
lence, and the gods themselves crowned the strongest, swiftest, and most 
dextrous in the Olympic games. And so, among the Greeks, physical 
training attained an approach to perfection surpassed only in the 
present day. 
Among the Romans, senators and consuls, even the mighty Csesar 
himself, did not disdain to seek, in the game of ball and other gym- 
nastics, amusement and healthful exercise. And although the culture 
of the body was never carried to the degree of refinement at Rome 
that it attained at Athens and Olympia, it nevertheless produced a 
race of men that dominated the known world. 
In both these instances, when physical training ceased to be a na- 
tional characteristic, and the men of brawn were succeeded by creatures 
of luxury, the decadence of national prosperity followed. And indeed 
in all history the relation between intellectual, political, and physical 
superiority has been constant. 
But while the methods of the Greeks far exceeded in value those 
of other nations of the world up to the present century, and while 
they possessed a few unique specimens of physical development, artistic 
representations of which have been the wonder of later generations, 
they were heavily handicapped by their ignorance of the structure of 
the body and the functions of its components. The thought of in- 
ducing growth of undeveloped parts and bringing the entire frame 
into harmony had not occurred to them, although in not rare cases 
this was brought about incidentally. Their efforts were applied rather 
to the encouragement of powers already existing in the individual, to 
add more speed to the swift, greater agility to the nimble, a stronger 
arm for the swordsman, and a closer grasp for the wrestler, the ulti- 
mate aim being merely to extend the combatant efficiency of each man 
in the line of his natural inclinations. 
Nor was the application of detailed knowledge of the body to the 
cultivation of strength and dexterity recognized by any one previous 
to our own time. But, once understood, the gymnast possessed a 
power of appreciating the exercise demanded for his training beyond 
the dreams of the ancients. The student of the human form divine 
early learns that but few bodies are built symmetrically. The well- 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF THE SOLDIER. 
323 
developed chest and arms are more than likely to be accompanied by 
spindling legs. The limbs of the left side are in a large proportion 
of cases smaller than those of the right. And this lack of symmetry 
is shown by measurement to extend to innumerable other details. 
In certain occupations in particular but the one set of muscles 
required for their ordinary conduct is used to any extent,—one set by 
the shoemaker, another by the tailor, another by the wood-cutter, and 
another by the farm-hand, while the unemployed muscles become 
correspondingly weak and unresponsive from disuse. Certain pro- 
fessional attitudes tend to become permanent deformities by the lack of 
suitable exercise. The dentist, whose duties require him to bend to 
one side during much of the day, is apt to present a permanent curva- 
ture in that direction. The trooper, who passes many hours astride of 
his horse, develops bow-legs. The baker, who weighs out the loaves, 
becomes knock-kneed. The student, who pores long hours over his 
books, contracts a “ scholarly stoop.” And the foot-soldier, who carries 
his rifle with his right arm, develops a depression of the right shoulder, 
to prevent which certain gymnastic exercises known as the “ setting- 
up” drill have long been practiced. 
During the long gap between the days of Lysander and Scylla and 
the present, warfare has passed through two essential transformations. 
With the ancients, individual strength and personal prowess were 
indispensable in a warrior, to enable him to hold his own in the series 
of hand-to-hand duels of which battles of that day were composed. 
But the invention of gunpowder dethroned individuality in combat, 
and gave birth to the later methods of fighting by hurling great masses 
of men against the enemy, as was seen in the campaigns of Napoleon, 
and more recently in those of Grant. Still later mutations in military 
methods have again removed from the soldier the encouragement of 
the “ elbow-touch,” and under the pressure of long-range and rapid- 
firing ordnance the necessity for dispersed order and individual action 
has again arisen. Duelling, although on a modified and vastly ex- 
tended scale, has once more taken the chief place in the machinery of war. 
Then, while the culture of the soldier’s physique has always been of 
importance, now more than ever has it become indispensable. By 
logically following out the indications of anatomy and physiology, 
showing the location of each muscle, and its action with respect to 
each organ and limb, it has been possible to develop a series of exer- 
cises by which growth of any desired portion of the muscular system 
can be stimulated at will. And by a combination of exercises, touch- 
ing upon each part in the proportion demanded for the purpose, the 
entire body can be developed into a symmetrical whole. Said an Eng- 
lish soldier, who had passed through a brief course of training in the 
gymnasium at Warley Barracks, upon being asked if he felt any 
stronger for his practice,— 324 
THE UNITED SEE VICE. 
April 
“ I feel twice the man that I did, sir.” 
And upon being further questioned as to his exact meaning, he 
continued,— 
“ I feel twice the man that I did for anything a man can be set 
to do.” 
The object of judiciously-directed physical training could not have 
been more cleverly stated. It aims to induce harmonious growth in 
the entire muscular system, to increase the mobility of the joints, to 
render the extremities more sensitive to the influence of the intelli- 
gence, to strengthen and facilitate all the organic functions, to remove 
the tendencies to irritability and discontent almost always due to physi- 
cal weakness, and, finally, by eliminating all the obstacles to its action 
occasioned by physical depression, to strengthen the mind itself. 
The application of physical training to the development of the 
soldier was first made, in the modern rehabilitation of the art, by 
Peter Henrik Ling, the son of a Swedish Protestant minister, and him- 
self at one time a divinity student. From a prolonged series of wan- 
derings in foreign lands, he returned home with a broken constitution 
and a suggestion of the usefulness of physical training. Applying the 
latter to the former, he secured his own recovery to health, and with 
health arose a desire to give to the sick of the world the same relief 
that he had obtained. Appointed fencing-master at the University of 
Lund, he acquired from his medical colleagues a mastery of the heal- 
ing art, which enabled him to adapt his exercises to the physiology of 
health and the pathology of disease. The essential feature of Ling’s 
system was the theory that motion pure and simple, without the active 
co-operation of the subject, would suffice for the complete development 
of the body. As applied to the conquest of disease and the recovery 
of the convalescent, his method has been extensively employed under 
the name of the Swedish-movement cure. 
Ten years later, in 1814, the government recognized his work by 
the establishment at Stockholm of the Central Institute of Gym- 
nastics, where every facility was afforded him for the perfection of his 
system. His military gymnastics consisted of twenty-five sets of four- 
teen or fifteen exercises, with and without apparatus, together with 
certain movements under arms and swimming. Not only is great care 
taken with the physical education of the army at large, but non-com- 
missioned officers displaying especial aptitude receive particular atten- 
tion to qualify them for service as instructors, while cadets at the Royal 
Military School who display exceptional expertness are made assistant 
instructors at the school, in order to train them for special duty in 
connection with physical training upon receiving their commissions. 
In Germany, although the idea of including physical culture in the 
soldier’s training was advanced earlier, it was not adopted until thirty 
years after the success of Ling. Guts Muths, who was teacher of gym- 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF THE SOLDIER. 
325 
nasties in Salzmann’s Philanthropium at Schnepfenthal for the fifty 
years preceding his death in 1839, was the pioneer of physical educa- 
tion, not only in Germany but throughout the Continent. The influ- 
ence of his teachings was perceptible in the gymnastic renaissance 
under the leadership of Nachtigall, in Denmark, and even in the work 
of Ling, in Sweden. As early as 1804 he urged the introduction of 
gymnastic training into the schools as a means of increasing the military 
efficiency of future recruits, but the war with Napoleon distracted 
attention from the matter, and Guts Muths’s influence upon the intro- 
duction of physical education into the German army was indirect 
though powerful. 
A more directly influential factor in the erection of the German 
system was Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, affectionately called by the 
Turners, of which society he was the founder, “Father Jahn.” In 
1810, while a teacher in Berlin, it was his habit to resort with his 
pupils to the woods and fields on holiday afternoons, there to engage 
in youthful sports and exercises. From these informal gatherings or 
tournaments arose a society termed the turnverein, the members of 
which became known as “ turners” and the physical exercises as 
“ turning.” The turnverein met a want in the German character, and, 
after some vicissitudes, entered upon a period of marvelous growth, 
until it numbered its societies by the thousand and its membership by 
hundreds of thousands, not only in Germany, but wherever the sons of 
the vaterland have collected in sufficient numbers, there being more 
than twenty thousand of them in the United States. The influence of 
the prevalence of “ turning” upon the German physique and character 
has been enormous. 
With the internal pressure of the Turners and the external example 
of the systems of Ling, in Sweden, and Nachtigall, in Denmark, it is 
surprising that the military adoption of physical training did not occur 
sooner, for it was not until June, 1842, that the King of Prussia 
authorized the organization of “gymnastic institutes in connection with 
the division and brigade schools in the army,” while the establishment 
of the central school of gymnastics, in Berlin, was delayed four years 
longer. 
Once inaugurated, however, the Germans pushed their system of 
military physical training to a high degree of efficiency. In the Berlin 
school two hundred lieutenants, and in the HauoVer school four score 
lieutenants and as many non-commissioned officers, are annually quali- 
fied as instructors in gymnastic exercises, while in the infantry arm of 
the service alone two hundred and thirty thousand officers and soldiers 
are under constant instruction in physical training. Not satisfied with 
the utilization of pleasant weather for exercise, large buildings have 
been constructed where it can be continued throughout all seasons. 
The exercises, with a view to simplicity, were limited to as small a 326 
THE UNITED SERVICE. 
April 
number as possible for proper development, to be executed with great 
precision. Those for the infantry, for example, are of five classes,— 
exercises without apparatus, gymnastics with weapons, gymnastics with 
apparatus, and applied gymnastics. 
The results obtained by this simple system are of the highest 
character. In recruiting from the German peasantry, as remarked by 
Prince Hohenlohe, the barracks soon fill witli figures that would put 
to shame the most exaggerated cartoons of the comic papers. The 
awkward fellows, whose neglected carriage makes them look like a set 
of botched-up images, try hard, but in vain, to stand erect. Ill-made 
and undeveloped, their uniforms will not fit them, and, if altered to 
suit their present figure, wrould need to be remade when they have been 
remodeled by physical training. So, before teaching them a single 
movement of the military drill or providing them with uniforms other 
than canvas fatigue suits, they are taught gymnastic exercises, advancing 
progressively and gently from the easier to the more advanced, until 
finally they have command over all the muscles and joints. In this 
manner the recruit acquires a more symmetrical development, a natural 
and erect carriage, and a methodical gait; he has learned to subordinate 
his muscles to his will, and at the same time he has insensibly learned 
to submit his will to the word of command. With material thus 
rendered plastic and ductile, it is comparatively easy to pass on to 
applied gymnastics, the manual of arms, and military manoeuvres. 
The men, having learned how to learn, acquire the new knowledge 
readily and rapidly, so that it requires hardly longer to teach them 
gymnastics and drill than to have taught them the drill alone.1 
France admitted gymnastics into her military service in 1847, and 
the Central School of Gymnastics at Vincennes was established in 
1852. The French system is much more extensive than the German 
and is taught in two parts,—elementary exercises and applied exercises. 
The elementary exercises are performed without fixed apparatus, for 
which they form a preparation, and consist of various calisthenic 
movements progressively arranged and designed to give the soldier free 
movement of the limbs and ready control over his muscles. He then 
passes on to the applied exercises, which consist of exercises on the 
ladders, horizontal and parallel bars, and other stationary apparatus, 
together with wrestling, boxing, fencing, the single-stick, swimming, 
dancing, and singing. The system is essentially Gallic in character, 
gratifying the national taste for graceful recreation, but at the same 
time never losing sight of the main purpose, physical improvement. 
Aside from an abortive attempt in 1822 to include gymnastics in 
the curriculum of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, no effort 
was made to introduce physical training into the British military ser- 
1 The German system of military gymnastics has recently been revised and 
extended under the direction of the Emperor Wilhelm II. 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF THE SOLDIER. 
327 
vice until the Crimean War taught the necessity for it. Two especially 
qualified officers, one a medical officer, were then sent abroad to ex- 
amine into the systems of gymnastics employed in the armies of the 
continent, and, as recommended in their report, a school for training 
non-commissioned officers as instructors for the army was established 
at Aldershot in 1801, having as a nucleus certain men who had pre- 
viously been instructed in the gymnasium at Oxford. The success 
achieved at the Aldershot school was so marked that, some ten years 
later, under the orders of Lord de Grey, gymnasiums were projected at 
every military station throughout the British possessions, so that each 
soldier might have at hand every appliance necessary for complete 
bodily exercise during the entire year. 
The system of training employed was laid out by Archibald 
Maclaren, of the gymnasium at Oxford, and published in 1862, under 
the title of “ A Military System of Gymnastics.” It aims first to de- 
velop the physique of the recruit, and, second, to contribute strength 
and mobility to the frame of the trained soldier. Three months’ gym- 
nastic training is required of every recruit during his ordinary drill, or, 
if advised by a medical officer, in lieu of part of it; it occupies one 
hour a day, the military drill taking up two or three hours in addition. 
The training is supervised by a medical officer, who is responsible for 
its proper performance, with authority to continue the exercise beyond 
the prescribed time if necessary. The trained foot-soldier is required 
#to pass through a three months’ course of training every year, consisting 
of an hour upon each alternate day, while the mounted troops engage 
in still other exercise. 
Maclaren’s code is divided into six courses, each complete in itself, 
and each an advance upon its predecessor. He is inclined to disparage 
free gymnastics without apparatus, and gives very limited space to 
them. His first course contains a few exercises of this kind, but dumb- 
bells and bar-bells are promptly taken up. The second comprises sim- 
ple exercises in walking, running, and leaping, together with wqrk 
upon the horizontal beam, the vaulting-horse, parallel and horizontal 
bars, rings and ladders, ropes and walls. The third, fourth, and fifth, 
called respectively medium, advanced, and arduous exercises, are pro- 
gressively-arranged series of movements with the same apparatus. 
The sixth course is the practical application of the preceding exercises. 
Other European armies, notably the Danish and Swiss, have ex- 
cellent systems, practically modifications, however, of those to which 
reference has been made. 
In the United States the first move towards the introduction of 
physical training into the military service appears to have emanated 
from the medical department, acting Surgeon-General Heiskell having, 
in 1842, recommended to the Secretary of War the establishment of a 
regular course in “ gvranasticks” at West Point. It was not until six- 328 
THE UNITED SERVICE. 
April 
teen years later, however, that Lieutenant J. C. Ivelton, now adjutant- 
general of the army, but at that time an instructor at the Military 
Academy, arranged the first systematic course of physical training in 
the institution. In his programme, one hour a day was devoted by 
each class to physical training for three-fourths of the year. The sub- 
ject did not become part of the work of a recognized chair, and, when 
Mr. Kelton’s detail expired, its importance failed of recognition from 
the rest of the faculty, each of whom was interested in his own field of 
study; and it was relegated to a secondary position, finally falling into 
its present status, where it is taught only to the “ Plebes.” During 
the remaining three years of the course its place is occupied in a neces- 
sarily defective manner by work in the riding-hall, where feats of 
strength and agility are encouraged in connection with the school of 
the soldier mounted. In 1881, under the direction of Lieutenant 
Farrow, the interest of the cadets in military gymnastics was heightened 
by the enthusiasm of that officer, who prepared a valuable manual of 
the subject. Since 1883 the academy has been fortunate in the ser- 
vices of aswordmaster, who is an accomplished instructor in gymnastics, 
and, under his direction, the work done in physical training by the 
“ Plebes” is by far the best that has ever been done in the institution. 
Greatly hampered in many ways and confined within too narrow limits, 
the striking progress in physical development made under his instruc- 
tion is a significant indication of the results that might be attained 
under a broader and more liberal policy. 
The prominent place now taken by physical training in civilian 
educational institutions brings the needs of the West Point system 
into more pronounced relief. The most conspicuous are three in num- 
ber,—(1) the demand for systematic physical culture after the first 
year; (2) the need for medical supervision of the work as required in 
the British and other services; (3) the necessity for a recognized chair 
devoted to hygiene and physical culture, such as now exists in all other 
high-grade institutions of learning in this country. There are still 
other flaws in the system, but they are comprehended in these three, 
the correction of which would beyond question result in the rehabilita- 
tion of the entire subject. 
Until within hardly more than a year, West Point has been the 
only military station at which any attempt to give systematic physical 
training was made. But in 1890 orders were issued directing the 
establishment of gymnasiums and the instruction of the men in gym- 
nastic exercises at the recruiting depots at David’s Island, New York, 
Columbus, Ohio, and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. As might have 
been expected, the movement was hailed with delight by the soldiers. 
The exercises, affording an agreeable relief from the monotonous rou- 
tine of garrison life, were an inspiration to the men mentally and 
physically. An immediate improvement was observed not only in 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF THE SOLDIER. 
329 
their deportment and habit, but in their manner and temper. These 
striking results were obtained in gymnasiums ill adapted from build- 
ings constructed for other purposes, with an extremely meagre outfit 
of apparatus, and all the other disadvantages unavoidable in a new 
departure under inexperienced leadership. Nevertheless, so conspicu- 
ous have been the benefits derived from the system that the officers in 
charge unhesitatingly urge its extension to all military posts,—an in- 
stance of the repetition of history, the British army having had a 
similar experience twenty years before. 
Symmetry and harmony being the chief aim of physical culture, 
the first essential in entering upon the study is a knowledge of the loca- 
tion of one’s bodily deficiencies. This is obtained by certain measure- 
ments and tests of strength and capacity, the apparatus necessary for 
which includes a steel tape-measure, a large pair of calipers, several 
spring dynamometers, a spirometer, a manometer, a pair of suspended 
rings, and a set of parallel bars. 
From the earliest times it has been recognized that weight, height, 
and breadth have been in direct proportion to the strength. The re- 
mark, “ There were giants in those days,” indicated the existence of 
beings of huge size and corresponding strength. And this idea is 
correct in the main, but ip many instances it is far from true. Weight 
may be due to deposits of fat, tending to produce weakness rather than 
strength. Height may be due to excessive length of legs or neck, 
both elements of weakness. Breadth may exist with flaccid muscular 
tissues and with adipose deposits, these being in no sense a represent- 
ative of strength. As already remarked, there is usually a great lack 
of harmony between the development of various parts of the frame, 
and in this disproportion may lie the source of great physical debility. 
All these and similar facts unite to demonstrate the necessity for 
detailed tests, involving all portions of the frame, in order to obtain a 
correct idea of the physical powers. The measurements, in accordance 
with this theory, published by Professor D. A. Sargent, of Harvard, 
have inaugurated a new era in physical education. His data are of 
ten kinds, comprising (1) the weight; (2) the height, from the floor, of 
the knees, the pubic arch, the breast-bone and the body, standing and 
sitting; (3) the girth of the head, neck, chest, waist, hips, thighs, knees, 
calves, insteps, upper arms, elbows, forearms and wrists; (4) the depth 
of the chest and abdomen ; (5) the breadth of the head, neck, shoulders, 
waist, and hips; (6) the length on each side from shoulder to elbow, 
elbow to tip of middle finger, of the feet, and of the body laid hori- 
zontally ; (7) the stretch of the arms; (8) the capacity of the lungs; 
(9) the strength of the lungs, back, chest, upper arms and forearms; 
and (10) the development of the body. In order to obtain the measure- 
ments of the typical man, a composite has been made from a large 
number of measurements, and in training the effort is made to approx- 330 
THE UNITED SERVICE. 
April 
iraate the individual as nearly as possible to the proportions of this 
type. 
The collection and collation of the measurements of man—anthro- 
pometry—has been found to be of the greatest benefit to human kind. 
To the physican, especially in his new function of health-adviser, now 
becoming more prominent every year, its value is incalculable in enabling 
him to locate the weaker points of his patients and more intelligently 
to prescribe means for avoiding illness or renewing health. To the 
painter in search of the ideal form it is a mine from which he may 
obtain the purest gems for his canvas. To the sculptor it is a treasure- 
house from which he may draw for embodiment in marble the noblest 
ideals of the human figure. To the ethnologist in the study of racial 
characteristics, to the sociologist in considering economical and social 
problems,—in fact, to the student of every question in which living 
humanity is involved, these data are of the greatest value. In no 
place can so complete series of measurements be obtained as in the 
military service. Beginning with the boyish “plebe” or the raw 
recruit, and extending through the various gradations of promotion or 
re-enlistment to the field-officer or the pensioner, a vast series of meas- 
urements following out the physical history of thousands of individuals 
may be produced, the value of which to future generations is beyond 
estimate. 
In entering upon the physical education of a civilian, in the ma- 
jority of cases marked defects require special exercises from the begin- 
ning, but in the soldier the instructor has a man who, although possibly 
undeveloped in certain respects, must present no actual physical dis- 
ability. A defect, almost universal, however, is lack of harmony in 
muscular power. To correct this, certain calisthenic exercises have 
been devised without apparatus, and corresponding rather to what the 
French call exerciees propres a V assouplissement; while they undoubt- 
edly contribute to physical development, they are designed chiefly to 
cultivate quickness in movement and responsiveness to command. 
The four exercises known to readers of Upton’s Tactics as the “ setting- 
up drill ” were distinctly of this class, and were so efficient in creating 
a soldierly deportment that in the system of tactics now in preparation 
thirteen new exercises have been added to them. This extended 
“ setting-up ” drill is designed for exclusive use only where general 
instruction in gymnastics is impracticable. When practicable it is to 
be enlarged by the addition of a considerable number of similar exer- 
cises to be executed at the word of command. The variation prevents 
the degeneration into a merely mechanical operation without spirit or 
mental occupation, the novelty of new exercises continually maintain- 
ing the interest.2 Additional diversion is contributed by the introduc- 
* A system of calisthenics for this purpose has long been in preparation by Mr. 
Koehler, and will shortly be issued to the army. 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF THE SOLDIER. 
331 
tion of the wand, which in the case of mounted troops may be a sabre, 
and in the foot forces a ramrod. In the gymnasium, dumb-bells, bar- 
bells, and Indian clubs add still greater variety, so that in the hands of 
a competent instructor an infinite diversity of movements may com- 
mand the interest and enthusiasm of a man throughout his entire 
service. 
In the best gymnasiums at the present time, the arms, chest, and 
back are cultivated largely by the use of chest- and rowing-machines. 
These combinations of cords, pulleys, and weights are so arranged as to 
permit an extensive variety of exercises, all of which tend to increase 
the breathing capacity and the muscular development. 
To the soldier in particular a correct gait is a matter of the greatest 
importance, since he may be called upon at any moment to march long 
distances on foot. In modern warfare, where it is desired to obtain 
from the men the greatest amount of work with the least exertion, the 
consideration of the method of walking that will carry the soldier to 
his destination with the least fatigue is one of the most important 
studies. There was a Russian regiment who were taught a gait con- 
sisting of alternately lifting each foot as high as the other knee, in the 
manner of a high-stepping horse, but such methods have long been 
abandoned for more natural gaits. 
Of practical importance nearly equal to walking is running. The 
soldier practices running at first for only short distances and slowly, 
and, as he advances additional grades in his training, he is perfected 
in running at half and at full speed and for longer distances. 
Leaping is an exercise of hardly less service than walking and run- 
ning. And this is particularly true in the new tactics, where individ- 
uality is so important a factor. At the storming of Le Bourget in the 
Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian grenadiers in the affair at the church 
pressed in unbroken line through the windows, leaping successively 
twice the height of a man down into the nave. Untrained troops 
could never have done this, and confusion and rout would have fol- 
lowed the attempt. Undoubtedly, jumping in heavy marching order 
and in the excitement and flurry of battle is a very different thing 
from the quiet definite leaping of the drill-ground, but the drill gives 
the soldier not only complete control of his muscles and joints, but a 
knowledge of his powers and a confidence in himself which doubles his 
value in war. Consequently the soldier must learn to leap unassisted 
to as great a height and over as wide a space as possible, and this both 
standing and running. He must be taught to jump to the rear and to 
leap sideways, to leap to a depth and to perform combinations of these 
exercises. He must also learn to avail himself of the assistance of a 
swinging rope and of the more familiar jumping-pole, both of which 
add materially to his power. 
Proficiency upon the horizontal beam may make the difference 332 
THE UNITED* SER VICE. 
April 
between life and death. A round beam, nine or ten inches in diam- 
eter at one end and six or seven at the other, and adjustable at various 
heights, is the apparatus used. Though undoubtedly of value in muscu- 
lar growth, exercise here is of particular service in training the co- 
ordinating faculties of the brain ; as a matter of fact, it is physically as 
easy to walk the beam when elevated hundreds of feet in the air as 
when laid upon the ground. The Alpine hunter and the renegade 
Apache without hesitation mount to the dizziest heights and uncon- 
cernedly walk along the margins of the deepest cafions. The horizon- 
tal beam gives to the soldier the mental discipline and physical con- 
fidence necessary to enable him to perform similar services for his 
country. A tree felled across a fathomless abyss will be bridge enough 
for him; sure-footed and self-confident, his training will be of equal 
value to him in leading a surprise upon an enemy over-confident in 
the protecting power of surrounding depths, or in escaping from the 
loftiest prison-walls. The exercises on the beam include sitting in 
various positions, arising to the feet, walking and passing another 
person, teaching the maintenance of equilibrium under all circum- 
stances and in all positions. 
Vaulting is another exercise, the connection of which with the 
soldier’s proper duties is so evident that it cannot be omitted from his 
training. Beginning with a bar adjustable at heights varying from 
three to six feet, he is taught to vault upon and over the bar running 
and standing, with both hands and with one. After he has become 
expert in this preliminary practice he is introduced to the vaulting- 
horse, a rude wooden imitation of a horse’s back, adjustable from the 
height of a toy pony to that of the great Norman horse. The training 
includes vaulting into the saddle in various ways, with one or both 
hands, vaulting over it in both ways, vaulting to the neck and to the 
croup, turning about in the saddle, and a great variety of motions. 
While these exercises are of especial service to mounted men in pre- 
paring them for manoeuvring with their horses, they are of almost 
equal value to the foot-soldier, for they bring into action and extensive 
motion almost every muscle of not only the extremities, but the trunk 
itself. 
It is not sufficient for the trooper to be taught to mount and dis- 
mount with precision, to saddle and unsaddle with approximate cor- 
rectness, and to bring the horse to a walk, trot, or gallop, according to 
orders. He should be a master of horsemanship, and he should not be 
allowed to touch the noble creature which is to be intrusted to his care 
until he has completely mastered the vaulting-horse. Then, already 
familiar with the most difficulc methods of mounting, already habitu- 
ated to the correct manner of sitting his horse, with his muscles trained 
to act and his joints trained to yield quickly to them, not only is the 
acquisition of the equestrian art made easier for him, but he is able to 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF THE SOLDIER. 
333 
acquire a much more complete mastery of it. Then proceeding from 
the inanimate to the animate, he readily learns to ride properly with- 
out straining his horse, and to perform the various methods of mount- 
ing and dismounting with his horse at rest and in motion; he rides 
with and without a saddle, he learns to protect himself by hanging at 
the side of his horse, and he picks from the ground anything from a 
cartridge to a comrade without dismounting. 
The exercises upon the parallel bars, the trapeze, the swinging 
rings, the horizontal bar, and similar apparatus found in every gym- 
nasium, while not directly applicable in the soldier’s work, will con- 
tribute efficiently to the strength, suppleness, and self-command sought 
for in every military unit. 
In the climbing exercises, however, we arrive at movements use- 
ful not only in physical development, but in the profession of arms 
also. On ladders, climbing with both hands and feet in the ordinary 
way, with the feet or hands only, and with numerous modifications of 
these, are useful. Climbing poles and ropes are expedients which war 
is more than likely to impose upon the soldier, and these, too, are of use 
in the general physical development. Scaling blank walls by means 
of crevices into which the finger-tips and toes can barely slip is a 
most arduous exercise, requiring long previous experience for its accom- 
plishment, but the ability to execute the feat may mean life and liberty 
to the prisoner of war. Where there are no crevices, their absence is 
no obstacle if a comrade or two be at hand and the top of the wall is 
not projecting, for a ladder of men may be formed leaning against the 
wall one above the other, up which all may climb to liberty or victory. 
But even with an overhanging top, the wall may be surmounted by 
the formation of a pyramid. And previous gymnastic practice makes 
all this easy for the soldier. 
An exercise which is omitted from most works on physical training, 
but which is of the greatest practical value both from the stand-point 
of physical development and of utility in peace and war, is swimming. 
It is particularly an essential feature of the soldier’s education. The 
ability to cross a deep stream may be the solution of a strategic problem, 
while the story of the life-saving application of the art is almost too 
trite to quote. It should be learned in all its phases, both as a means 
of training and as a practical application. With a view to scouting 
and reconnoitring, swimming with masses of straw or similar debris 
upon the head, carrying arms and clothing in like manner and leading 
a horse or swimming with his assistance should be learned. And a 
most important practical element of this exercise is practice in rescuing 
and resuscitating the drowning. 
A feature of the French system, at which advocates of other systems 
are inclined to look with contempt, is singing. But no greater mistake 
could be made. Aside from its value in strengthening and adding to 334 
THE UNITED SERVICE. 
April 
the carrying qualities of the voice, it is invaluable as a means of im- 
proving the lungs,—giving “ more wind,”—and contributes strength 
and fulness to the muscles of the throat, chest, and abdomen. In the 
United States army, in which there is a large proportion of young men 
from foreign lands who have entered the service as a means of becom- 
ing identified with their adopted country, the value of instruction in 
national songs, as a means of developing patriotic sentiments, cannot 
be too highly regarded. 
In the infantry and cavalry the bayonet and sabre drill are taught 
respectively, while the embryo officers of West Point learn fencing 
and the broadsword. Boxing and single-stick are taught in some 
armies, and may be of great service, for the time comes in every man’s 
life when a mastery of the manly art of self-defense may be of use in 
protecting himself or others. A forcible illustration of the value of 
such training was seen in a London street, when a slightly-built soldier 
rescued a miserable woman from the blows of a brutal husband of 
twice his strength, using only the little switch which Tommy Atkins 
invariably carries when off duty. This he plied so industriously about 
the head and face of the wife-beater, at the same time dextrously 
avoiding most furious onslaughts in return, that he sent his antagonist 
home blubbering like a baby, and himself sauntered unconcernedly away 
untouched and unruffled. 
The merits of physical culture are so obvious and the benefits so 
conspicuous that the unavoidable enthusiasm is liable to degenerate 
into a craze, when excesses may produce the most disastrous conse- 
quences. It is stated that, of thirty-two all-round athletes in a New 
York club six years ago, three are dead of consumption, five have to 
wear.trusses, four or five are lop-shouldered, and three have catarrh 
and partial deafness. While exercise judiciously prolonged is of in- 
calculable benefit in the growth of body and mind, yet exercise in 
excess produces a contrary effect. The “ muscle-bound” athlete is 
frequently seen; less common, but by no means unknown to medical 
science, is the man with muscles wasted from excessive use, an affection 
not unusual in ballet-dancers. Lifting heavy weights is a frequent 
cause of spinal disease and paralysis. Professor Leuf, himself an 
expert in the national game, has described the base-ball “ pitcher’s 
arm,” a condition of overtaxed function involving all the anatomical 
elements of the upper arm. The over-enthusiastic bicyclist half cripples 
himself, and the “ tennis-arm ” is seen in both sexes. 
Recognizing these dangers, Ling, before completing his system, 
qualified himself in medicine, and in the present day the best teachers 
of physical training are medical graduates.' The British and other 
army regulations require gymnastics to be under the supervision of a 
medical officer. Not only is this demanded by the danger of injury 
from the abuse of exercise, but because no one who has not had a care- 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF TIIE SOLDIER 
335 
ful training in physiology and pathology and an extensive observation 
of both diseased and healthy conditions can fully appreciate the indica- 
tions and contra-indications for the training of defective parts. The 
physiognomy of disease stamps itself not only upon the face, but upon 
every portion of the body, and weaknesses not apparent to the un- 
trained eye will be noted at once by the expert diagnostician. No 
provision for physical training, then, is of greater importance than 
authoritative medical supervision. 
The results of properly-applied physical training are marvelous. 
In the class of non-commissioned officers through which gymnastics 
were introduced into the British army, the muscular additions to the 
arms and shoulders, says Maclaren, were so great as to have absolutely 
a ludicrous and embarrassing result, for before the fourth month 
several of the men could not get into their jackets without assistance, 
and when they had gotten into them they could not make them meet 
by a hand-breadth. In a month more they could not get into them 
at all, and new clothing had to be procured, pending the arrival of 
which the men had to go to and from the gymnasium in their great- 
coats. Among these men the smallest gain was five pounds in weight, 
and an inch each in girth of chest and arm; the largest gain was six- 
teen pounds in weight, and in girth of chest and arm five inches and 
an inch and three-quarters, respectively; while the average gain was 
ten pounds in weight and in girth of chest and arm three inches and 
an inch and a half, respectively. 
Results even more astonishing were obtained in the gymnasium of 
the recruiting depot on David’s Island, where in one month a class 
of seven men gained in girth an average of an inch and a half at the 
chest, and three-quarters of an inch at the arm, while one man made 
the remarkable increase of two and a quarter and one and a quarter 
inches. In the eight months to which physical training is limited at 
West Point equally notable results are obtained, one cadet in the last 
class gaining four and a half inches in girth at the chest and an inch 
and a half at the arm. 
The significance of these figures is far greater than appears on the 
surface. The influence of the enlargement of the chest alone cannot 
be computed ; the greater expansion permitted to the lungs, the greater 
play allowed to the heart, the greater amount of oxygen introduced 
into the system, the greater excretion of effete matter from the blood, 
with their secondary effect upon every cell and organism in the body, 
cannot be expressed. , The increased girth of the extremities is not the 
only indication of their added strength, for it does not take into ac- 
count the firmness and contractile power gained even before the growth 
began. The quickened sympathy between the brain and the muscles 
cannot be shown by any test. The suppleness, the agility, the self- 
confidence that have developed, cannot be represented by figures. The 336 
THE UNITED SERVICE. 
April 
added keenness of perception, the comfort, joy, delight, which exist- 
ence alone gives, cannot be estimated, much less represented. 
In the United States army but little has been done towards the 
creation of a system of physical training. At West Point a splendid 
gymnasium is in course of construction, although as yet no appropria- 
tion has been made for furnishing it with apparatus; in the medical 
department of the army are several officers of the highest repute as 
hygienists; and in the swordmaster the Academy has an accomplished 
teacher of gymnastics. In the combination of these three elements 
into a department of hygiene and physical training with complete 
anthropometric records, with general training to increase the physical 
capacity and special training to remedy deficiencies developed by illness 
or other causes, and with complete scientific instruction in physiology 
and hygiene, as required by law, the Military Academy has the means, 
with the assent of Congress, of at once proceeding with physical train- 
ing in a manner equal to any military training-school in existence. 
From here, then, may in course of time be sent into active service a 
body of trained teachers thoroughly qualified for the instruction of the 
enlisted soldier. 
For the enlisted men, also, but one step remains to be taken. Two 
or three of the larger posts have gymnasiums, furnished by subscrip- 
tion, in which the men have found recreation and amusement, and 
excellent work with poor facilities has been done at the three recruiting 
depots. When the gymnasiums projected for the depots shall have 
been completed, a continuation of the existing judicious regulation 
requiring all recruits to spend an hour a day in gymnastic exercises 
under skilled supervision will provide for the service a nucleus of par- 
tially-trained men. All that remains to place physical culture upon 
the basis shown by the experience of all other armies to be necessary 
is its extension to include other enlisted men as well as the recruits. 
The country can hardly afford to end the physical training of the sol- 
dier with his entry into his regiment; the value of the training at the 
depot would then be lost, for in the reaction the muscular activity would 
be supplanted by muscular inertia. Neither can it afford to omit from 
the training of its soldiers methods which the civilized world has learned 
by practical tests to be essential for obtaining from them the best ser- 
vice. When the superior physical training of one of the parties to so 
great a contest as the Franco-Prussian War is known to have been the 
force that turned the tide of victory in its favor, the United States can- 
not afford to reject it. Since training the men to physical vigor will 
result in keeping from the pension rolls names of those who would 
otherwise speedily degenerate into dependents upon the nation’s bounty, 
practical economy itself dictates its adoption. 
Moreover, it will not only result in a vast increase in the efficiency 
of the military service, but it will have a broader influence upon the 1892. 
THE BUILDING OF THE SOLDIER. 
337 
entire commonwealth. As the years pass by, it will throw out into the 
community, upon their discharge from the army, a class of men by 
their physical development and mental capacity qualified to be more 
than ordinarily useful citizens. By its necessary extension to the large 
number of military schools, it will encourage healthful tendencies and 
manly inclinations in the youth of the country. Through its adoption 
by the National Guard, always quick to absorb the best features of the 
regular service, it will disseminate physical development and intellectual 
activity throughout the young men of the nation. In every class of 
society, in every grade of life, wherever health is understood and 
length of life desired, its influence will be felt and its effects 
appreciated. 
James E. Pilcher, M.D., Ph.D., 
Captain in the Medical Department of the Army. 
Vol. YII. N. S.—No. 4.