rse for the performance, the Captain died from the
exposure he encountered. There is a record of a Mr. Bacon of the Bombay
Civil Service, who rode one camel from Bombay to Allygur (perhaps 800
miles) in eight days.

As regards the physiology of the runners and walkers, it is quite
interesting to follow the effects of training on the respiration,
whereby in a measure is explained the ability of these persons to
maintain their respiratory function, although excessively exercising. A
curious discussion, persisted in since antiquity, is as to the supposed
influence of the spleen on the ability of couriers. For ages runners
have believed that the spleen was a hindrance to their vocation, and
that its reduction was followed by greater agility on the course. With
some, this opinion is perpetuated to the present day. In France there
is a proverb, "Courir comme un derate." To reduce the size of the
spleen, the Greek athletes used certain beverages, the composition of
which was not generally known; the Romans had a similar belief and
habit Pliny speaks of a plant called equisetum, a decoction of which
taken for three days after a fast of twenty-four hours would effect
absorption of the spleen. The modern pharmacopeia does not possess any
substance having a similar virtue, although quinin has been noticed to
diminish the size of the spleen when engorged in malarial fevers.
Strictly speaking, however, the facts are not analogous. Hippocrates
advises a moxa of mushrooms applied over the spleen for melting or
dissolving it. Godefroy Moebius is said to have seen in the village of
Halberstadt a courier whose spleen had been cauterized after incision;
and about the same epoch (seventeenth century) some men pretended to be
able to successfully extirpate the spleen for those who desired to be
couriers. This operation we know to be one of the most delicate in
modern surgery, and as we are progressing with our physiologic
knowledge of the spleen we see nothing to justify the old theory in
regard to its relations to agility and coursing.

Swimming.--The instances of endurance that we see in the aquatic sports
are equally as remarkable as those that we find among the runners and
walkers. In the ancient days the Greeks, living on their various
islands and being in a mild climate, were celebrated for their prowess
as swimmers. Socrates relates the feats of swimming among the
inhabitants of Delos. The journeys of Leander across the Hellespont a