EFFECTS OF ROLLER SKATING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1830, 2 May 1888, Page 2

EFFECTS OF ROLLER SKATING

Concerning the roller skate there is, unfortunately, little risk of exaggerating its evils . Although of only comparatively recent introduction, its effects upon the carriage and gait, and upon the anatomical development, especially of growing children, are already quite marked. These obvious physical effects are inherent ia the muscular action involved m tbe use of this form of skate. Unlike the ice skate, there is no long gliding movement, nor are Ihe opposing muscles of the lower extremities equally exercised, m .the oonsiant successions of side-thrusts whioh make np all there is of exeroise on roller stakes. When to this is added the faot tbat the praotioe may be, and is by many, continued throughout the year, while ice-skating lasts only for a few weeks at a time, with long intervals between, it ia easy to see why so many youth of both sexes are acquiring the peculiar gait of A Micmac Indian, or a Hudson Bay voyageur m the snow-shoe season. Examination of the ankles of the majority of the ohildren who clatter among the smooth olde«walka of our residence streets will reveal a thickening of the ligaments of the joint, and an undue development of the musoles and tendons of the outer side of the leg, with a corresponding relaxation of those of the Inner side, whioh point to the oondltlon of one of the common forms of club-foot that m which the subjaot w&lka on the inner ankle. The results are patent even to the non-professional eye, and are therefore proper toplos for comment the columns of a news journal. Bat th e re Is another class of evils arising from the continuous use of roller skates, whlohJJls of a muoh more serious [nature, (and to which only the merest alluslonjjmay here be made.SßJThe oare of the health of future mothers Is the especial and sacred ' oharge of those who know, by personal experience, how profoundly that health may be affected by some apparently insignificant oause during adolescence. There is sutfiolent reason for the belief that the form of exeroise m question is oapable of produolng both structural and functional disturbances '< of_£[a nature.—" Book-worm."| '■:. p ._f