GAMES FOR GIRLS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2292, 21 June 1921, Page 2

GAMES FOR GIRLS.

THE medical correspondent of the London Times recently gave his endorsement to the view expressed by the principal of a girls’ school that the strenuous physical exercises which are suitable for boys are unsuitable for girls. There is no manner of doubt that she is right, lie says, and if her warning serves to end the absurd and ruinous craze, which has certainly injured the health of many women in recent years, it will not have been spoken in vain. One is able to say this, and at the same time make full allowance for the advantages of a reaction against the tight-laced, swooning girls of a generation or two ago. But the reaction went too far. The spectacle of girls of 14 and 15 tumbling about a hockey field is exceedingly unpleasant, and, if one happens to know anything of physiology, distressing. These girls may think they arc doing themselves good. In fact, many of them will pay a heavy bill of costs Inter, and their spoiled tempers will not conduce to the happiness of the people among whom they live. Me shall come nearer to understanding the position if wo realise that the organs of our bodies are all in close nervon- connection, and that disturbances, whether mechanical or kdiamnialory, in one organ quickly set up secondary disturbances in ihe others. Man. in virtue of his muscular and bony formation, is capable of withstanding a great deal of physical stress without disturbance of organic relationship; woman j> not so capable. In consequence, strenuous exercise is apt to displace her organs and set up what are known as “re-ilex’’ symptoms. Many of these are referred to the heart, and it is then stated that the girl has strained this organ —an entirely wrong impression being thereby conveyed, since, in the public view a man is as liable lo strain bis heart a oiii.'in. Tlie hearts oi these

£;rls ;iiv not stfainod; what ha* happened is that other organs have been displaced or dragged about, and the balance of the viscal nervous system is upset. The heart merely shares in a general catastrophe.