While reading an article on "Training at Harvard fifteen years ago," recently published in the CRIMSON, the question must have occured to many, whether the present method of training, undergone by our crews, will not appear as extravagant fifteen years hence, as the old system does now.

The practice of the crews of running in the open air, during the cold days of the winter months, seems to us extremely objectionable. Some trainers are averse to any exercise in a temperature below fifty or sixty degrees; but, as the air in the gymnasium is very close and fatiguing to men on the running track, our crews may not find it beneficial to follow this rule. The great abuse, however, of the refreshing and wholesome out door exercise lies in taking it when the thermometer atands below zero. On the coldest day this winter, when few persons ventured across the yard without a heavy overcoat, when rooms in Thayer and Holyoke could not be heated above forty or fifty degrees, one of the crews had the hardihood to run up North Avenue, clad in the scanty and inadequate clothing of the gymnasium. The harm done by such needless exposure is two fold: 1st. As certain parts of the body are chilled, the circulation of the blood becomes irregular, and the heart is liable to ge affected. The captains, however, can avoid this danger by compelling their men to wear more clothing, especially around the neck, arms and legs. 2d. Instead of an increase in breathing power, the lungs are apt to be temporarily, if not permanently injured. Running, compels not only faster, but also deeper breathing; the inhaled air finds its way to the innermost and extremely delicate tissues of the lungs. These tissues, not used during the ordinary process of breathing, are lunfit for contact with very coldlair.

We therefore recommend the consideration of these facts to the several captains who have absolute authority, and consequently the responsibility in all questions in regard to training. An inquiry into the matter may lead to most beneficial results. No doubt it would be possible to determine the exact temperature below which it is injurious to the crews to take violent exercise in the open air.