MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT THAT KILLS.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 73, 28 August 1878, Page 2

MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT THAT KILLS.

In the notices of the last hours of John Morrissey mention is made of his splendid physique, resisting the power of disease. With that physique, it might have been added, he possessed whatever may bdLjhe advantages of early training as an atluete and pugilist—training which is claimed by T its devotees to develop muscle, conserve ' the health, add to physical strength, and in many ways improve the powers of endurance. Yet John Morrissey died At forty-seven I These facts, taken with others of shnitar nature, must mean something. Morrissey’s great physique and training led him. as Heenan’s and Hyer’s did, to the grave at a period of his life when most other men with fair health, who take good care of themselves, are in the prime of vigorous manhood, and remain so for many year-. A single case of the kind would, of course, have hut limited significance; but here tire three of them all telling the same story, by exhibiting the same coarse and the same end. According to the logic of the muscular school, these men should have lived at least to the average term of men of good physique, but they all died comparatively young. The class of prominent pugilists in this country is composed of very few men : but here are three of the very magnates of the prize ring in'the present generation who died off prematurely. No such proportion of mortality among the hale and strong men of any other calling can be found. Now, what do such facts mean ? Is it that the severe training of the professional atheletc saps the health of the subject and kills vitality ; or is it that such training leads men into courses of life that bring about the same result ? One is a question for the medical profession, and the other for all people, but particularly for colleges and universities addicted to the muscular hypothesis. —‘ Philadelphia Public Leader, May 3.