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538 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
Wisconsin has within
the past five years given
thorough physical examinations
to more than
five thousand men upon
entrance. From these
records we may get an
idea of how many of
these men are unable to
pass the physical requirements
for army enlistment.
These requirements
are: fairly robust
health, good eyes, sound
heart, lungs, and no
serious skeletal defects
or chronic disorders.
Out of these five thousand men. as
they entered the University, seventy-five
per cent had nasal abnormalities, fiftyfive
per cent had defects of vision, fortyeight
per cent had throat trouble, fortyseven
per cent had skeletal deformities.
and twelve per cent defective heart and
lungs!
These percentages are startling. Of
course, it is but fair to say that the university
examination is far more exacting
than the army examination, and that a
great many of the defects noted in the
university records are not serious
enough to catch the enlisting officer's
eye. But still it is evident that far too
great a percentage
of
young men as
they enter college
would actually
be rejected
at the
enlisting station.Universities
realize
this condition.
What have
they done to
help these student
s during
the four years
of their college
life?
Every mod-
The Footprint on the Right Was Made
by a Flat Foot; After Treatment for a
Month the Print Took Shape as Shown
on the Left
ern university has a
physical education department
for the purp
o s e of maintaining
health among the students.
The criticism
that has been raised of
these departments is that
they benefit only students
who are normal
physically, and neglect
the subnormal. So today
some of the more
progressive universities
have gone further and
established a department
for the special purpose of
correcting the defects of subnormal students
by adapted exercise, with an eye
directly to making their men fit for military
service. The University of Wisconsin
has been blazing the trail in this
new field, and is today the only university
which employs a specialist to devote
his whole time to this work. It has a
separate gymnastic room and employs
the most modern apparatus for corrective
work. Between two and three hundred
students who are handicapped- by
physical defects receive special attention
under the direction of Dr. J. C. Elsom.
This is one of the most interesting
departments of the university, for it is
actually a human
repair
shop. Here
backbones are
being straightened,
fallen
arches are
being raised.
and round
shoulders are
being squared.
These repairs
are not miracles
: they are
the carefully
calculated re­
Curing Round Shoulders
Walking about thi gymnasium with a brick on thi head is one of the
very best "setting up" exercises.
sults of proper
exercise. Nor
are these results