The influence on national life of military training in schools : [an address delivered before the Medical Officers of Schools, Thursday, February 15, 1906] / by T.C. Horsfall.

  • Horsfall, T. C. (Thomas Coglan), 1841-1932.
Date:
[1906?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence on national life of military training in schools : [an address delivered before the Medical Officers of Schools, Thursday, February 15, 1906] / by T.C. Horsfall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    some knowledge which it gives and the new wholesome feelings and thoughts which the new knowledge supplies. Walks to the suburbs, and when possible into the country, in military order, practice in judging distances, changes of formation when space allows of it—these things should form an important part of the training given in every school. There are some inter¬ esting German statistics which raise the question whether for many children this kind of physical occupation which keeps them in the open air, with their minds and bodies pleasantly engaged, and does not tire them, is not, with the addition of a moderate amount of games and gymnastics, much more con¬ ducive to the gain of health and strength than the giving of more time to games and gymnastics would be. Dr. Meisner showed that in those parts of Germany where the population is mainly occupied in the varied work of agriculture, this kind of daily training, with the addition of school gymnastics, causes a much larger proportion of the young men to be fit for military service at the age of twenty than a much larger amount of strenuous physical training given in other districts to boys and youths who spend less time in fresh air. Sweden gives more gymnastic training to its boys than any other country, and 75 per cent, of its young men are fit for military service. But in some of the country districts of the German province of Brandenburg, where boys have gymnastic training, but less than is given in Sweden, the proportion of young men fit for military service reaches 80 per cent. Dr. Meisner, who demands between eight and nine hours of sleep daily for boys, says that for many boys an hour’s extra sleep would be more useful than an hour’s extra physical training. That too much mental work in schools, and an insufficient amount of rest and physical exercise, are among the most potent causes of physical deterioration seems to be proved by the remarkable fact, reported in the year 1877, by Dr. Finkelnburg, that of 17,246 young men who were entitled by the examinations which they had passed to serve for only one year in the Prussian army, only 20 per cent, were physically fit for service, while of the ordinary recruits whose brains had not been so much over-worked, and whose bodies had been more exercised, from 50 to 55 per cent, were physically fit for service. Last year it was again stated that boys from the higher German schools show an ever-increasing amount of physical unfitness for military service. Though military drill would be a very desirable addition to the physical training given in all boys’ schools* even if there were no such a thing as the possi¬ bility of war, some of the strongest reasons for making it part