His successor, Prof. Branting, possesses equal enthusiasm, and his
faith in gymnastics, as a panacea for all human infirmities, is most
unbounded. The institution under his charge is supported by Government,
and, in addition to the officers of the army and navy, who are obliged
to make a complete gymnastic course, is largely attended by invalids of
all ages and classes.

Neither of us required the system as a medical application. I wished to
increase the girth of my chest, somewhat diminished by a sedentary life,
and Braisted needed a safety-valve for his surplus strength. However,
the professor, by dint of much questioning, ascertained that one of us
was sometimes afflicted with cold feet, and the other with headaches,
and thereupon clapped us both upon the sick list. On entering the hall,
on the first morning of our attendance, a piece of paper containing the
movements prescribed for our individual cases, was stuck in our bosoms.
On inspecting the lists, we found we had ten movements apiece, and no
two of them alike. What they were we could only dimly guess from such
cabalistic terms as "_Stodgangst_," "_Krhalfligg_," "_Simhang_," or
"_Hogstrgrsitt_." The hall, about eighty feet in length by thirty in
height, was furnished with the usual appliances for gymnastic
exercises. Some fifty or sixty patients were present, part of whom were
walking up and down the middle passage with an air of great solemnity,
while the others, gathered in various little groups on either side,
appeared to be undergoing uncouth forms of torture. There was no
voluntary exercise, if I except an old gentleman in a black velvet coat,
who repeatedly suspended himself by the hands, head downwards, and who
died of apoplexy not long afterwards; every one was being exercised
upon. Here, a lathy young man, bent sideways over a spar, was
struggling, with a very red face, to right himself, while a stout
teacher held him down; there, a corpulent gentleman, in the hands of
five robust assistants, was having his body violently revolved upon the
base of his hip joints, as if they were trying to unscrew him from his
legs; and yonder again, an individual, suspended by his arms from a
cross-bar, had his feet held up and his legs stretched apart by another,
while a third pounded vigorously with closed fists upon his seat of
honour. Now and then a prolonged yell, accompanied with all sorts of
burlesque variations, issued from the throats of the assembly. The
obje