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"FITNESS OR PROWESS"
By PETER CHISHOLM McINSTOSH
Senior Inspector of Physical Education to the London Country Council
This lecture was first delivered at the Britich Empire Commonwealth
Conference on Physical Education at Perth, Western Australia in November
1962. It is reproduced here by permission of the Organizing
Committee of that Conference.
In the year 1870 the Education Department of the British Privy
Council made arrangements with the War Office for instruction in drill
to be given in elementary schools by army sergeants. The exercises
were to be taken from the Field Exercises Book of the War Office and
the rate of pay was sixpence a day and a penny a mile marching money.
Between 1864 and 1867 recruits for the army had been rejected on physical
ground at the rate of 408 per 1,000. The outbreak of the Franco-
Prussian War on the Continent of Europe in 1870 indicated a need for
a reservoir of fit citizens.
In the year 1962 a publication under the direction of a Committee
of the British MedicalAssociation stated that insufficient exrcise in youth
and early middle age was now recognised as a major causative factor
in the occurence of coronary thrombosis in the prime of life. More casual
exercise and physical training were advocated. At the same time
a printed notice appeared in the window of a cycle shop
"Cycle each day
Keep thrombosis at bay".
It is not for us here to examine the validity of either the British
Government's policy in 1870 or the medical claims of the doctors and
bicycle retailers in 1962. The historical events, however, do reveal that
a concern for physical fitness at one time may have a basis quite different
from that of a similar concern at another time. The instances which
I quoted also show that the promotion of fitness is of interest to professional
groups, to commerce and to private individuals, as well as to
governemnts.
Health and military efficiency are but two of many objectives
which over the years, have been advocated for physical training and physical
fitness.
Similarly, at any one time, a concern for fitness in one country
may have a very different basis from that which exists in another country.
Our concern for fitness is in part based on our observation of unfitness
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