in limb, and heart, and brain— active and
clean.

But we go back to the activity— our
active doctor's upholding of rational
gymnastics, and to his denunciation of that system
of child-crippling usual in schools, where, as
he quotes from Horace Mann, " the child who
stands most like a post, is most approved;
nay, he is rebuked if he does not stand like a
post. A head that does not turn to the right
or left, an eye that lies moveless in the socket,
hands hanging motionless at the side, and
feet immoveable as those of a statue, are the
points of excellence, while the child is echoing
the senseless table of A, B, C."

And now, let us be just to " Ling's system."
A part of it, consisting of " Free Exercises,"
needing no apparatus, might really be used in
England, more especially in connection with
those unwholesome forcing pits known as
seminaries for young ladies. On their account
we should be very glad to do our part towards
bringing Swedish gymnastics into fashion.
Herr Böllcher (we have not the most distant
idea who Böllcher is), we find quoted in
our doctor's pamphlets; and he says to the
Germans what we have said often enough—
no, not yet often enough— to the English.
We suppose Böllcher to be a doctor at some
German Rational Gymnasium. " We will not
inquire," he says, "how a child has been
brought up to its sixth year with regard to
food, clothing, dwelling, and exercise; but
we will assume that it has been treated
rationally, and is sent at that age as a healthy
child to the public school. Now the childish
play ceases; instead of the exercise and games
which had been strengthening the body, the
school is substituted in all its earnestness and
rigour for six hours a day. School is not a
place where labour is united with play, and
application with pleasure, but one for labour
and application only. When boys, however,
return from school they are usually permitted
to exercise themselves freely, and to find for
themselves opportunities of making their
bodies strong, flexible, and healthy; but this
is not the case with girls; they must bear
themselves from infancy with the strictest
propriety, and their out-of-school hours are
therefore employed in sitting occupations,
such as reading, writing, and sewing. The
only recreation permitted them is playing
with toys, which neither rouses the mind nor
exercises the body. As girls become older,
the requirements of the school become greater;
lessons to be done at home diminish their
leisure time perhaps by two hours. If the
girl is to be introduced into the world in her
fourteenth year as a well-endowed young
lady, she must begin at least in her tenth
year to play the piano and to learn French.
Thus the lessons are spread over two hours
more, and the mind is daily occupied for ten
hours, while nothing is done for the body.

"Can we, then, wonder that in the fair sex
of the present day, especially in large towns,
among the middle and higher classes, ailments
of the muscular and nervous system, deficient
development of the bones, and consequently
curvatures of the spine, glandular and
scrofulous diseases, green sickness, cardialgia,
fainting fits, and irregularities occur so
frequently? No one who does not wilfully shut
his eyes can fail to see the evil of the prevailing
fashion of female education."

Dr. Roth does not stop here. He is not
content with stating evils and deploring
them. He has stirred up a little company of
ladies to work actively for its suppression.
To him we owe the recent birth of a Ladies'
Association for the Diffusion of Sanitary
Knowledge, and Promotion of Physical
Education. One lady has given the use of
a house at Brighton as a contribution to the
cause. That house and a room at Dr. Roth's
in London are at present " Institutions in
which schoolmistresses and pupil-teachers,
belonging to any schools for the working
classes, can attend, gratuitously, a course of
theoretical and practical instruction in all
subjects relating to the preservation of health,
including the principles of systematic bodily
training, in order that they may impart these
branches of knowledge to their pupils." By
these means it is designed that schoolgirls,
the future wives and mothers of the working
classes, shall obtain information which is now
possessed by very few. Classes are also to
be formed for private governesses and other
ladies, who would not wish to receive gratuitous
instruction. Special attention is to be
paid to instruction in the management of
infants and children, as being one of the most
important duties of women, and one, which
the great mortality among infants proves
that she performs (often through no
fault of her own) very imperfectly. In
order to make this part of the instruction
thoroughly practical, it is proposed that some
orphan infants be reared in the institutions;
schoolmistresses will thus have an opportunity
of gaining a thoroughly practical
knowledge of all matters relating to the preservation
of infantile health; and, through them, this
knowledge will be imparted to the working
classes, who have at present little opportunity
for gaining it, except from dearly-bought
experience, or from books, which, in many
cases, they have neither inclination nor
means to purchase, nor intelligence to
comprehend. Nursery-maids will be admitted
to this part of the instruction; and the
association hopes thus to supply nursery-
maids to whom infants may be safely
entrusted.

This association desires also to be serviceable
by causing to be compiled and published
interesting, simple, and practically-written
tracts on all subjects relating to the preservation
of health—such as ventilation, exercise,
bathing, clothing, food, cooking, management
of infants and children, &c. Ladies
will thus be enabled, during their visitation