University of Virginia Library

Physical Culture.

WILLIAM A. LAMBETH, M. D.,

Director of the Gymnasium.

The work offered in Physical Training and the privileges of the Gymnasium,
with the services of the Director, are given free of cost to every
regularly matriculated student of the University. The exercises, whether
individual or concerted, are optional, but all students are advised to take
advantage of at least the regular class exercises. These are arranged at such
hours as not to encroach upon time which should be spent in lecture or study,
and include instruction in all forms of gymnastic apparatus, and in boxing,
wrestling and fencing. Advice as to the use of various appliances is given
upon the basis of a thorough physical examination, and with a view to
securing uniform physical development.

The Fayerweather Gymnasium provides in the basement baths of all
kinds, with cold and hot water, a swimming-pool, lockers, and bowling alleys.
On the first floor are the main exercise-hall and the various offices, and in
the gallery above are the running-track and a loft for spectators. The
supply of apparatus is ample and of the best quality.

The Campus, adjacent to the Gymnasium, and the Athletic Field, on
the southern side of the grounds, furnish ample space for foot-ball, base-ball,
tennis, and track-athletics. The former contains a well-drained and ballasted
quarter-mile running track; on the latter the exhibition games of
foot-ball and base-ball are held.

Athletics among the students are under the special direction of the General
Athletic Association, an organization of students whose object is to
promote this class of physical exercises. The Faculty, by means of its Gymnasium
Committee, exercises only a general advisory control, endeavoring to
foresee and avert dangerous tendencies or unwise excesses in physical exercises,
while giving to the students, as far as possible, entire liberty of management.
But a strict limit is placed upon the character of intercollegiate games and
the number played away from the University, and students are not allowed
to play upon the University ball teams except after examination by the
Director of the Gymnasium and with his approbation.