place in the class list confers in itself no standing in Canadian journalism. Many of our most trenchant writers and most influential editors are not college-bred. One is, therefore, forced to the unwelcome conclusion that the influence of our universities upon Canadian journalism, or for that matter, upon Canadian politics,--is almost invisible. So much the worse, you will say, for both. On that point allow me to preserve a discreet silence.

A. H. U. COLQUHOUN.

LIFE.

Life is a bubble on the sea,
The ocean of eternity;

It floats awhile in glittering pride,

It may o'er many billows ride.

There comes a moment, none knows why,
No cloud o'erspreads the summer sky,
Some little breath, some hidden thing,
Perhaps a spirit on the wing,
Touches the orb-it melts away,
The sea receives its little spray ;-
No mark, no memory left behind.
The everlasting sea, the wind-
Flow on.

GEORGE MERCER DAWSON.

A MODERN GYMNASIUM.

It is now nearly ten years since I climbed a narrow stair over a livery stable in New York to visit one of the oldest gymnasiums in America. A row of wooden pillars down the centre of the floor supported the roof, and between them and fastened to them were solid beams for the attachment of bars and rings and pulleys. A primitive running track encroached on the floor space, and the floor itself was littered with dumb-bells and iron bar-bells, some weighing 200 lbs., long, heavy, fixed parallel bars, pulley weights and rowing machines of antique design. A lifting machine, consisting of a stand and a handle to which would be attached a variable number of iron discs, occupied a prominent position, while a spring board or botoude, several mattresses and a small hand ball court completed the equipment, except for the heavy Indian clubs that hung in racks against the wall.

The very equipment of this building is typical of the old idea of gymnastics, an idea borrowed largely from the circus-the idea that the gymnasium is a place for the display of unusual skill and prowess, in which the unskilled or weak could have no part except as a spectator, where the athlete goes to practise some splendid trick or feat, to learn some showy exploit with which to startle or amuse his friends, or by which to earn his living. Many of the old time gymnasts drifted naturally to the carpet or the flying bars of the canvas tent, and so brought the names of gymnasium and circus into constant association.

The floor of such a building, encumbered as it was by immovable machinery, would not allow the simultaneous working of a large number of men, and the weight of the Indian clubs and dumb-bells excluded the weak and even the man of ordinary powers. It can readily be understood why the gymnasium floor was shunned by the sensitive or timid, or even the mediocre, under these conditions. No man of feeling willingly undertakes a competitive exercise in assurance of defeat, nor will he be seen at a disadvantage by his fellows if he can avoid it.

The thought of going to a gymnasium for the development of heart or lung power or for making the body more symmetrical or healthier, never entered into the calculations of its "habitués." Yet this haunt of gymnasts, in which the man of muscle had exclusive control of the floor, was one of the sources of our modern gymnasium. And although in the main the system seems crude or even wrong, let us not be too wholesale in our condemnation, lest the good which was undoubtedly present, be lost with the evil.

The value of system exercise for the sick and under-developed has been recognized from the time of Hippocrates, but its scientific application is comparatively modern, and the great extent of its present use is due to a few men who, thoroughly trained as gymnasts, were thoughtful educated physicians. They saw the possibility of the gymnasium as a cure. Sargent made experiments in the designing of developing machines. If a man could not pull his own weight up by his arms till he chinned a bar, yet he might gain by this exercise. A movable bar running in grooves was designed with a counter-weight capable of increase, so that he pulled the bar down to his chin instead, and gradually worked up to a feat that he would otherwise have given up as impossible. And so with innumerable other machines, all constructed on the same idea of gradual increase from a small beginning.

The desire for scientific accuracy in recording results was soon felt and supplied by the invention and adaptation of instruments for the accurate measurement of various dimensions of the body, and of the strength of muscle groups. The names of Anderson, Seaver, Gulick, Kellogg, Mosher, and others are associated with original work of this nature. From the few and simple measurements taken by MacLaren at Oxford, to the more elaborate series by Hitchcock of

Amherst, and Sargent of Harvard, we have had developed the system of anthropometry, whose figures include almost every important dimension of the body; the large number of individuals measured rendering conclusions as to type and individual variation increasingly valuable.

After the sudden rise of athletic sports and intercollegiate contests into popularity, the frequency and nature of injuries to players soon showed the necessity for keeping down those risks without which such games would be almost useless as a training in courage, for

"No game was ever yet worth a rap

For a rational man to play,

Into which no accident or mishap,

Could possibly find its way."

Therefore a high standard of physical ability and perfect soundness of wind and limb, determined by a thorough physical and medical examination were required of students before being permitted to compete in violent athletic contests. Thus the medical side of the modern college gymnastic system was developed to meet the conditions. Although much has been and is being done, this branch of college work still presents a new set of problems, educational, medical and physiological.

The work of a modern college gymnasium has been influenced by a third force. The Young Men's Christian Association found that one of the best means of holding their members was by giving them physical training, and all Y. M. C. A. branches soon furnished it as part of their work. Training schools for instruction were established. Students in these schools were particularly taught body-building and all-round development, the display of special gymnastic prowess being rather frowned upon as savouring too much of the circus. Of necessity the men had to be taught in large numbers together, and the Association had their share in making prominent the class work that is important in current gymnastics.

The present-day student will belong to one of three classes, according to his physical condition on entering college. He may be grouped with that small number who from heredity, constitutional weakness, or severe illness, are defective or weakly, who are often abnormally sensitive and intellectually keen, but who require the most

careful counsel, encouragement and direction if they are to keep their physical condition at its best for the strain of a college term. But he is more likely to be one of the great mass who, although defective and untrained, do not require more than the average all-round training of a well-designed course in gymnastics. Or he may belong to what one might call the honour class, by having a special aptitude for all feats requiring strength, skill or daring. To such a man the ordinary exercises of a class are irksome and tame; special provision for him must be made, for on his brawn, speed, courage and endurance depends the athletic honour of his university.

Let us follow three typical men through their first year at a college whose authorities have awakened to the necessity of the physical examination of its students and have provided a thoroughly equipped convenient gymnasium in which to carry out the course of exercise suggested by preliminary examination. Shortly after registration, our three students, "A.," "B." and "C." receive cards for examination giving them appointments at the gymnasium office. On presenting himself, each receives a blank form containing questions about habits of exercise, family history, past history, tendency to disease, use of alcohol and tobacco. He fills this out to give the examiner an idea of his physical condition as he himself knows it. All three then pass on into dressing rooms and strip for measurement. The measurements include the weight, height, length of trunk and extremities separately, breadths and girths of body and limbs. Especial attention is given to the relation of bone girths, such as the knee, to muscle girths, such as the thigh and calf. The girth of chest, passive and active, is measured; the expansion of the lungs, and many other points are noted. From these figures the student learns his development as compared with his fellows, for this can be shown graphically by plotting the figures on a chart compiled from thousands of other measurements obtained by years of observation in different institutions that have carried on the series.

By plotting his measurements year after year during his course, he gets accurate record of his improvement, and thus gains a real incentive to work for his physical betterment.

After the measurements have been recorded, the student passes on to the medical examiner, who notes the salient points of the health report and anything unusual brought out by the measurements. He