Medicine: Who’s in the Pink?

“If we speak of fitness and efficiency we shall have to ask ourselves: Fitness and efficiency for what? A man may be fit as a paper hanger without being fit to decide the destiny of a continent. . . . A man without legs is unfit for walking but may be an outstanding fighter pilot.” These challenging questions & answers were made last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association by two South African doctors. Drs. Ernst Jokl and Eustace Henry Cluver of Johannesburg. To determine the physical fitness of thousands of their countrymen, they had made many and varied experiments.

Some of their findings:

¶ Recently they rounded up 32 young men from the “poor white” class. Since these men had no major diseases, most doctors would call them physically fit. But they were dull, undernourished, sluggish, plagued by colds, rheumatism, headaches.’ No employer would hire them. Drs. Jokl and Cluver sent them to a Government-sponsored camp, gave them food, exercise, recreation. In six months they produced an improvement “truly remarkable.” Soon after the training period, most of the men found good jobs.

¶ During the last few years, Drs. Jokl and Cluver have made 20,000 tests on children between the ages of 5 and 20.

The children were of many different groups: “English, Afrikander [native Dutch or Huguenot], Jewish, Bantu, Cape Colored, Indian and Chinese.” They had to put a ten-pound shot, run 100 and 600 yards, at any pace they pleased. After each child finished, the doctors made careful notes on how tired he was. Amazing was the finding: all racial groups of the same age had the same endurance. Said the doctors: “No more impressive evidence for the basic equality of man has ever been adduced.”

¶ “In sharp contrast to what is generally believed,” the doctors found that “working endurance” is greatest in young children.

Age of greatest physical stamina: about 6. In all children, the onset of adolescence causes a tremendous physical strain. From the age of 13 on, the physical efficiency of women does not increase, may even decline. Girls of 18 were exhausted by the 600-yard run, although children of 6 took it in their stride. The physical efficiency of boys continues to rise after 13 but at a much slower rate than before. “An important biologic hint: during puberty, unnecessarily strenuous activities such as rigid drill . . . must be avoided.”

¶ Scientists know practically nothing about the effect of food on physical efficiency. Drs. Jokl and Cluver compared the athletic performances of two sets of children: a “poor” group which ate mostly carbohydrates, a few vegetables; a “rich” group which had plenty of vegetables, meat and dairy products. When both groups were put through their paces, there was no difference in efficiency, before adolescence, between the “poor” and “rich” children; after adolescence, the poor children dropped far below the others.

¶ Prowess in athletics has always been considered a sure sign of physical fitness. But not to Drs. Jokl and Cluver. They have collected case histories of scores of athletes who suffered from major diseases: a champion swimmer with a form of insanity and paralysis caused by syphilis, a first-class ski-runner with a wooden leg, a shot-put champion with a congenital deformity of his chest muscle. Prize specimen was the “iron man of South African Rugby football,” who died after a game. Both his kidneys were diseased, and he had an enlarged heart, hardening of the arteries, glandular trouble.

The American Social HygieneAssociation, after a survey of almost 2,000,000 people, announced that 3% of U.S. adults have syphilis. Jail inmates have the highest percentage of syphilis (19.75%). Next highest: domestic servants (11.7%).