all the limbs may be left comparatively out of account;
whether naturally weak or naturally strong they are of subordinate
importance. On the other hand, it is always worth while to cultivate the
muscles of respiration, as it is always worth while to keep the heart in
good order. Again, the weakness of the muscles of the back, and more
especially in the case of the growing girl, is not a thing to be
accepted as readily as the weakness of the biceps and the forearm
muscles. Various observers find a proportion of between 85 per cent. and
90 per cent. of those suffering from lateral curvature of the spine to
be girls, the great majority of these cases occurring between the ages
of ten and fifteen. Everywhere it is our duty to prevent such cases, and
everywhere physical training will find only too abundant opportunities
for endeavouring to correct them. It may be doubted perhaps whether we
may rightly follow Havelock Ellis in attributing woman's liability to
backache to the relative weakness of the muscles of the back, for we
know how often this symptom depends upon not muscular but internal
causes peculiar to woman. On the other hand, we may certainly follow
Havelock Ellis when he says, regarding this lateral curvature of the
spine, from which so many girls and women suffer: "There can be no doubt
that defective muscular development of the back, occurring at the age of
maximum development, and due to the conventional restraints on exercises
involving the body, and also to the use of stays, which hamper the
freedom of such movements, is here a factor of very great importance."
We shall not here concern ourselves with the details of practice, but
the principle is to be laid down that perhaps second only in importance
to the right development of the heart and the muscles of respiration is
that of the muscles of the back.

Always, however, we are apt to judge by the obvious and to value it
unduly. Nature makes the biceps and the muscles of the forearm naturally
the weakest in woman compared with man, but it is just the bending of
the elbow that makes a good show on a horizontal bar or rope; and so we
devote too much time to the training of these muscles in our girls, with
the results which make such creditable exhibitions at the end of the
session, while we forget the muscles of the back, the right development
of which is far more valuable, but does not lend itself to display.

In this connection it is to be added last, but no