a more nearly complete life than his civilized descendants, and his body was strong accordingly. We should admit the hopelessness of having permanent good health without muscular activity and should determine that muscular exertion shall be as much a habit and pleasure as eating and sleeping.
Alcohol and Muscular Strength.—Benjamin Franklin, one of the wisest and greatest of Americans, was a printer when he was a young man. In his autobiography he gives an account of his experience as a printer in London. He says: "I drank only water; the other workmen, fifteen in number, were great drinkers of beer. On occasion I carried up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands. They wondered to see, from this and several instances, that the Water-American, as they called me, was stronger than themselves, who drank strong beer. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about 6 o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom, but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he might be strong to labor."
Exercises in Writing.—The Right and the Wrong Way to ride a Bicycle. Pay Day at a Factory. A Graceful Form: how Acquired; how Lost. A Drinking Engineer and a Railway Wreck.
Practical Questions.—1. Can we always control the voluntary muscles? Do we shiver with the voluntary or involuntary muscles? 2. If a man had absolute control over his muscles of respiration, what might he do that he cannot now do? 3. Why is one who uses alcoholic drinks not likely to be a good marksman? 4. Why should a youth who wishes to excel in athletic contests abstain from the use of tobacco? 5. Is there any relation between the amount of bodily exertion necessary for a person's health and the amount of wealth or the amount of intelligence he possesses? 6. Can you relax the chewing muscles so that the lower jaw will swing loosely when the head is shaken? Can you relax your arm so that it falls like a rope if another person raises it and lets it fall? 7. The average man has sixty pounds of muscle and two pounds of brain; one half of the blood goes through the muscles and less than one fifth goes through the brain. What inference may you draw as to the kind of life we should lead? 8. Why is a slow walk of little value as exercise? 9. How can we best prove that we have admiration and respect for our wonderful bodies? 10. Why is the ability to relax the muscles thoroughly of great benefit to the health? How is this ability tested? (Question 6.) 11. Why is it as correct to say that the muscles support the skeleton as the reverse?
