This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... sanitation and public hygiene and sanitation. The exact meaning of these terms will be explained in Chapters XXVI and XXX. It should be understood that the following statements on the hygienic conduct of individual and social life are not equally applicable to all who read them. For one, those on muscular exercise are more important than those on nervous strain; for another, those on domestic hygiene are more important than those on the hygiene of the person. No attempt has been made to indicate the relative importance of any part of the subject, either by the order in which it is treated or by the amount of space devoted to it. The application must be made by each reader for himself, with strict reference to himself and to the conditions of his own life and environment. The principal desire and aim of the authors is to persuade every one who reads this book, not merely to study and to know himself as a physical mechanism with the same earnestness and thoroughness with which he would study a valuable watch, a bicycle, a yacht, or an automobile, but also to use that mechanism scientifically--i.e., intelligently, carefully, and skillfully, --to the end that life may be longer, more useful, and more enjoyable. PERSONAL HYGIENE CHAPTER XVII MUSCULAR ACTIVITY A. The Ministry Of Muscular Activity To The Body As A Whole It is sufficiently obvious that it is through muscular activity that we do many necessary, useful, or otherwise desirable things; and it is also a matter of common experience that muscular activity is required in order to build up strong muscles. A very considerable amount of it is required in order that the laborer may do his work, and a similar amount is necessary in order that one may become an athlete. But the effects of..