There is a question connected with the public health which deserves more attentive consideration than it has hitherto received. Athleticism under its various forms has become a great national institution, and annual displays of activity and strength are now celebrated in every village in the country. Prizes and medals are eagerly competed for; our great national games are prosecuted by young England with an increasing amount of spirit; Football, Cricket, Tennis, Rackets, Running, Rowing, each and all have their devoted adherents; the feats performed by those who excel in these contests are not allowed to pass unnoticed; newspapers, periodicals, almanacs and magazines vie with each other in chronicling the fullest particulars regarding victors and vanquished, and there are champions of the oar and the cricket-field whose achievements are more familiar to the rising generation than those of any general, statesman, or poet who ever adorned the pages of English history.

Whatever may be thought of this spread of athleticism, and worship of muscle, one thing is certain, that even those who are unable to sympathize with such pastimes must still accept them as established facts—must look upon them as recreations which have taken so firm a hold upon the public mind that no amount of preaching will lessen their attractions, and no amount of indiscriminate warning from medical authorities without more particular inquiries will ever do much to loosen their hold upon the youth of Great Britain.

Viewing athletic contests then as national institutions, what is their influence upon health? Are they calculated to improve the physique of our population?