State of California [Footnote: California State Med. Jour., June,
1916 p. 220.] has recently reported its endorsement of Foster's
"Indictment of Intercollegiate Athletics." After five years of
personal observation of no less than 100 universities and colleges,
in thirty-eight states, Foster concludes that intercollegiate
athletics have proved a failure, and that they are costly and
injurious on account of an excessive physical training of a few
students, and of such students as need training least, while
healthful and moderate exercise at a small expense for all students
is most needed.

Experts, [Footnote: Rubner and Kraus: Vrtljsehr. f. gerichtl. Med,
1914, xlviii, 304.] appointed by the Prussian government to
investigate athletics, reported that for physical exercise to be of
real value it must be quite different from the preparation of a
specially equipped individual trained for a game. Exercise should
benefit all children and youth, while athletic prowess necessitates
taxing the organism to the limit of endurance, and hence is
dangerous and should not be allowed in schools or universities.

McKenzie [Footnote: McKenzie: Am. Jour. Med. Sc., January, 1913, p.
69.] found that exhausting tests of endurance were not adapted to
the development of children and youth, because the high blood
pressure caused by such exertion soon continued, and he found
athletes to have a prolonged increased blood pressure. As is
recognized by all, boat racing is particularly bad, especially the
4-mile row. Such severe exertion of course increases the blood
pressure, even in these athletes, and the heart increases its speed.
There is then exhilaration, later discomfort, and soon, as McKenzie
points out, a sensation of constriction in the chest and head. This