The Gospel of Health.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43384, 5 November 1908, Page 3

The Gospel of Health.

That health should have become once more evangel, a faith, that we British* era should be of recent times more and more imbued with the grand Greek ideal of peifect physical development, is a very good sign, Weaie net speaking, be it understood “in praise of the folly ’’ of sport run mad, but rather Jn commendation of mens sana in cor- ; fu’ly believing that without the well-developed mind the sound b;>dy is but the hollow husk, and in this connection it has been onr privilege wi bin the last week or two, to come in contact with proninent expontnts of the gospel of health. One of these leaders of the present .. health campaign Mrs H. Heap, who has large classes iu the city and suburbs Of Auckland, it was our privilege to interview the other day on tl:e subject of Physical Culture, and an illuminating talk it was, more particularly so as we have during the past two years enjoyed the pleasure of witnessing delightful exhibitions of girlish movement, strength and grace, conducted by this lady. “ I don’t believe in gymnastics for girls, .though I have taught it in England, Mrs Heap. ” “ But there is always ,a risk of overstrain, and I dont advocate

it, with Pyhsical Culture the work is too gradual for overstrain, even a girl •. with a weak heart can do our work, though of course not in the class, because that would be too rapid for her. ” We have ourselves noticed, we may state, how Mrs Heap watches individual pupils, and sets them aside for a rest if she sees signs of fatigue. “It is the Swedish system which I teach,” remarked Mrs Heap, and one can only echo the teacher’s own words that if only for the purpose of insuring a good carriage it is well worth the trouble of going through the work. But of course grace is by no means the chief end to be attained by the practice of the Swedish system of physical culture though in the marching movements, to watch the girls come round the hall like a fleet of ships in a fair wind, or to see them stepping gracefully in procession, with we know not how many varieties of movements of the foot or to watch them like “ Full breathed racers, ”

running in and out of. the intricacies of the maze, or curteseyiny toward their audience in a flowing line of Greek drapery, for all the world like a silver fringed wave falling on summer sands, fills the eye with more of pleasure than is to be gathered every day of one’s life. But l the other side of the physical cult is none the less interesting, although it. appears, when compared with all this winsome movement a very literal getting down of nature “ upon her knees ” to do her i preparatory work. JjJHere there is no flowing drapery, only the ordinary garb associated with ordinary gymnastics, for of cause there . must be no impedimenta to interfere with the work which is to be gone through. The first exercises to be taken, are foot and the leg exercises. These are designed to draw away the blood to the lower extremeties, so as to prevent heart strain, and also to strengthen the spine they are in fact designed to equalise and stimulate the circulation, and to increase the nobility of the ancles and the power of balancing. After these exercises come the breathing exercises, which bear such a wonderfully close relation to the development of the various portions of jhuman anatomy. “ Most people breath so artificially,” said Mrs Heap, and certainly deep breathing has been reduced to a science by the Swedish exponents of physicial culture. Here we have six methods; After the Eupil has been made familiar with reathing, iby practising an ordinary deep breath ‘with varied movements, she is advanced to the art of learning to control the movements of the chaphram, that is to say she learns both to move that muscle down, to expand it, and to move it up. When a pupil has mastered the art of diaphraniatic control, she learns the advanced stage of deep breathing which; includes three movements of the diaphram in the one breath. This action,supplies an internal massage The different exercis's are designed to assist and develop the various organs oi the body, for instance some are designed to assist the digestion, and others to

i cleanse the air “cell iof the lungs. In fact there are more things in deep breathing than are dreamed of in the philosophy lof the uninitiated ; and we shall not soon forget the sigh as of an autumn breeze which went all through thoseJJ ranks of maidens as, in accord with the coinmani of Mrs Heap, they exhaled or inhaled, either emptying their lungs of the poison there gathered, o: oxygenizing their system with a fresh supply of air. Perhaps none of these exercises would more commend themselves to those'who noted the growth of throat and nose troubles among the young, than the exercises especially designed to combat these affections. Here the breath is drawn up each nostril separately and exhaled on the same plau, the inhalation sometimes being done in separate short sniffs through the nose. It is a difficult feat to accomplish without praclise, but is certainly worth the special attention given to it, in its efficacy in combating adanoids and other troubles. The dumb-bell exercises which a’e designed on Physical culture lines by Mrs Heap herself, and form a very pretty part of the programme on the open night, though like the rest of her scheme they involve other things beside mere grace.