NOW that the Annuals have begun, the College year is practically over as far as athletic sports are concerned; for the body, on whose development especial care has been bestowed for many months, is now often almost entirely neglected in the eager effort to review a year's work in a few days. It does not seem out of place, therefore, to look back on the history of those associations which have been founded among us with the design of promoting physical development, in order to see how many of their early promises they have redeemed.

The Rifle Corps is still too young to have had much influence, but we hope that its results will soon be seen in the improved carriage and manly bearing of the students, who are now, it must be confessed, for the most part either "slouchy" and round-shouldered, or else conspicuous for their "dog." The position of the soldier is seldom considered of much importance by the young recruit, who is all anxiety to get a musket and parade about the streets to the admiration of the fairer sex and of the throngs of little ragamuffins who follow his march. Judging from the various positions which different men keep in the ranks, we fear that they have not been carefully instructed in the rudiments.

Nor has the Athletic Association succeeded in teaching many men to run faster and for longer distances. There have, to be sure, been a few who have been in training for the races, and they may have made better time than before; still the improvement is confined to a small number. An easy saunter to Porter's or Mt. Auburn is what most men still mean by "taking a walk," and any one who has walked to Belmont or Arlington or the Waverly Oaks considers that he is quite justified in boasting of his prowess to his friends. Not that we mean to say that ten or twelve miles is not a good walk, but it should be taken oftener, and men who do not take other exercise should accustom themselves to walking for an hour or two every day at the rate of four or five miles an hour. There is nothing so invigorating as a good, brisk walk with the shoulders thrown back and the chest expanded, and, besides, the country about Cambridge is well worth exploring on Saturdays and on leisure afternoons.

The Boat Clubs have been very popular, and have induced many men to take proper exercise; but there are still, we think, only about two hundred men who avail themselves of the new privileges. It does not seem extravagant to say that there are at least three hundred who can and ought to row, and we hope that that number will soon be completed.