WOMAN’S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1922, Page 10

WOMAN’S WORLD.

SPORT PERIL TO WOMEN. MEDICAL ALARM IN BRITAIN. SEARCHING INQUIRY BEGUN. “Englishwomen as a race are heading straight for sex extinction, unless there are speedy and fundamental changes in the prevailing system of physical education for the modern girl.” This startling statement was made to a London Daily Express representative by Mr. George Chalmers, secretary of the College of Preceptors, BloomsburySquare, where a joint committee has been formed, representative of the medical and teaching professions, in an endeavor to stay the peril of this threatened extinction. “Increasing numbers of medical men and women, Scientists, biologists, head mistresses of colleges and high schools and universities, are corning to the conclusi< r that, in a generation or so, women as a sex will no longer exist, if they are further developed in the modern masculine mode of- physical instruction,” added Mr. Chalmers. “In view of the urgency of the situation and the sound scientific and medical opinion submitted to us, we have formed this joint committee to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter all over the country. "The committee represents the British Medical Association, the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians, the British Medicai Women’s Association, and includes the most eminent representatives of the teaching profession in all its ramifications. Among the members of the committee are Sir Charles Ilyaii, Dr. Alice Sanderson Clow, and Miss Cowdray, head of the Crouch End School and College. ADOLESCENCE. “We particularly seek opinions from teachers and head mistresses on the physical effects they have observed on their pupils of gymnastics, with and without apparatus, and especially the effects of such strenuous games as hockey, football, swimming, rowing, horse-riding, foot-racing, and lacrosse. We are also making inquiries in regard to' the personal influence exercised by drill and games mistresses on adolescent girlhood. “From medical men and women and the hospitals we are anxious to collect statistics of the sterility of the sporting types of women —the typical products of our modern schools for girls. “The medical profession has long had misgivings about our present system of physical instruction for women, and many of its most distinguished members are continually asserting from their own experience that the functions of motherhood are impaired by these strenuous games, and that they cause incalculable suffering to women in later years. ‘Added to this, we have had sound scientific opinions submitted to us by eminent biologists, pointing out that in these strenuous games women are spending all their ‘capital,’ with the consequence that they are producing an emasculated race of men. 1 TWO ELEMENTS. “These biologists also point out that woman has a male as well as a female clement in her composition, and that the accumulated effects of the present system of training tend to develop only the male in her, with the consequence that we shall soon have a species of human being who is neither man nor woman. “We are working on the assumption that there is a fundamental difference in the organism of a man and woman—that our girls can be taught to exercise healthily without blindly imitating the violent games of men and boys. “We desire that stress should be laid on the fact that this is not an antifeminist move. On the contrary, the most distinguished members of the committee aver that women, as the mothers of the race, are superior to men.” WOOL ODDMENTS. INTERESTING IDEAs. The craze for knitting and crocheting jumpers has left behind a number of -odd pieces of wools and silks which can be used up in many delightful ways (states a writer in an English exchange). There are little woolly coats for the breakfast egg. These may be crocheted as three triangles in wool of one color, and joined and embroidered with stitches in another color. They leave much scope for originality and ingenuity, and make inexpensive but very acceptable gifts in sets of half a. dozen. Bedroom slippers for th? babes are charming embroidered wi-u many-col-ored wools, and so are blotting cases, black hopsack cushions for the study, and serviceable shopping bags. Colored net curtains with a border in bright wools or silks have an unusually pretty effect; and very attractive table mats can be made of coarse curtain net edged and darned with wools in many colors to fqrm flowers or a design. . But the most fascinating work ot all is making mascots which can be put to a variety of uses. They are easy and entertaining to make.' A little‘man may be fashioned out of brown wool. The body is made by winding the wool ten or twelve times over three fingers. Yellow silk is used for binding his neck and waist and wrists. The loops of wool which have been cut at one end are parted and bound with green silk to form his legs. And his cap is crocheted in green and finished with red and the whites of his eyes are indicated with cream silk thread. Pink wool may be used to make a little lady with her legs bound in red. She might wear a yellow crochet skirt and tam-o’-shanter, with a green silk sash and pompom. Small black beads can form the eyes, and a tiny red rosebud of a mouth may be made with red silk. Both mascots should be mounted on corks by a fine piece of wire which runs up inside one leg and through the body. No two mascots should ever be alike if they are to bring luck to their owner! They may be used to decorate pincushions, powder-puffs, and scent sachets, to ornament a menu card, or suspend from a double chain of crochet finished off with beads they make ' uncommon book markers.