As announced in another column, this evening's Physical Training Conference has been arranged with the idea of promoting undergraduate discussion of the subject. There has of late been a growing feeling among certain graduates that some more general plan of encouraging physical development here might be more than justified by the practical good resulting from it. This sentiment was expressed in the report of the Committee on Physical Training, Athletic Sports, and Sanitary Condition of Buildings, to the Board of Overseers. To quote from the report:- "A large proportion of students not being sufficiently strong and active to play on the athletic teams, find no inducement to improve their physical condition. Thus a very large class take no regular exercise and it is by no means uncommon to find men, often students of great promise, who leave college as much weakened in body as they are strengthened in mind." The committee expressed itself as strongly impressed with the importance of encouraging men to devote a portion of their time to the cultivation of general health, and in commenting on Dr. Sargent's report to them, favored a prescribed course of physical exercise during the Freshman year.

As has been shown by the CRIMSON news articles explanatory of the systems in operation at other colleges, there are a number which seem to have worked well and might meet with favor here. Whether any of these courses, prescribed or elective, counting or not giving credit for an A. B., are applicable, and whether the idea of a fixed course of indoor training is not dangerous in itself as discouraging open air exercise, are questions to be discussed at the conference this evening. It is to be hoped that they will meet with the careful consideration of many undergraduates, and that some conclusion, whether favorable or unfavorable, toward the adoption of a recognized course of Physical Training at Harvard will be the result of the meeting.