Various ways of exercising the muscles to
keep the body well.]

=How to exercise the Muscles.=--Outdoor games give the best form of
exercise. Tennis, baseball, cricket, rowing, and swimming are sports
which bring nearly all the muscles into use. Every boy and girl should
learn to swim. It is dangerous to go swimming alone or to swim in
deep water. Cramp may seize the muscles at any time, so that the limbs
cannot be moved. Hundreds of persons are drowned every year by
venturing in deep water.

Taking care of the yard and garden and helping with other work about
the home is one of the best ways of getting exercise and at the same
time doing some good.

=Special Kinds of Exercise.=--A room with ropes, swings, and machines
in it for exercise is called a _gymnasium_. Under the direction of a
teacher the pupils can get quickly just the right kind of exercise to
strengthen the weak parts of the body and keep every organ in health.
The muscles oftenest neglected are those of the chest. Every one
should keep his chest full and round by swinging the arms and
_practicing deep breathing every day_.

=Danger from too much Exercise.=--Lately it has been learned that very
violent exercise for more than a few minutes often injures the heart.
The running of many races until you are all out of breath or much
jumping of the rope is likely to strain the heart. It is always
harmful to urge the body on until it is completely tired out.

=Alcohol makes the Muscles Weak.=--In the year 1903 two learned men in
Switzerland spent much time to determine whether alcohol helped
persons do more work. They tried more than two hundred experiments
with men to whom they sometimes gave wine and sometimes food, and
sometimes both were given together.

The results of these tests showed that when wine was given alone, the
man's ability to do work was increased for a short time, but later he
could not do so much work as when he had taken no wine. When the man
took both food and wine, he could do only about nine tenths as much
work as when he took food alone.

The most careful tests by other persons show that whisky will not help a
man do more work, lift a heavier weight, or shoot straighter. In fact
little or much whisky makes him less able to do any of these things.

=Beer makes the Muscles Lazy.=--Doctor Parkes of Netley secured two
gangs of soldiers to do the same kind of work. He allowed the first
gang to drink some beer, but the second gang were