The physical examinations are of value in giving the professor of hygiene a basis for useful advice to undergraduates on health, and also have had the rather unexpected result of giving new confidence to many men who were afraid there was something serious the matter with them when there was not. These examinations are also significant as showing that the men who enter college nowadays, with rare exceptions, come to college with clean and wholesome bodies. There are compulsory physical examinations also for candidates for teams, and other students may have such examinations if they wish. The professor of hygiene has the power to prevent any man from playing on a team if his physical condition makes it unwise; and he has a control over the health of the students that no university official had prior to the past decade. He has brought about the regular sanitary inspection of the University dining halls, the small swimming pools which are now available, the playing fields, etc.; and all physicians and trainers of the athletic teams must be approved by him, and are responsible to him. These steps seem to us so wise and necessary that it is strange to think that they have been taken only in recent years.

Health of Student Body Satisfactory

Statistics compiled by the Department of Hygiene show that the general health of the student body is satisfactory. The incidence of illness is somewhat lower than in the general community; and the University, although it has its epidemics, has had them in recent years less severely on the whole than the general community.

Meanwhile, the opportunities for sport have been not only much increased, but much more widely used. During the past ten years more than fifteen acres on Soldiers Field have been made available; a new track has been built, a large amount of new equipment has been furnished for oarsmen, the University has purchased the former Randolph Athletic Building and the Big Tree Swimming Pool, and is now operating these buildings for the use of the entire student body; a temporary Freshman Athletic Building has been constructed, and there have been many other minor additions to athletic equipment. Many of these developments, of course, have been made possible by the increased revenue of the Athletic Association from the sale of football tickets.

The figures for locker rentals show that undergraduates have been taking an increasing amount of athletic exercise during the winter months of the past few years, and this seems to indicate that the requirement of exercise for freshmen develops a habit which tends to stay with the men during the rest of their college course. A good sign has been the increased popularity of squash racquets which, from being a game known only to few, has grown until last winter an average of about 500 played it every day. The reservation sheet is posted each morning at 8.45; before that time there is frequently a line of twenty-five to fifty men waiting to reserve courts, and only those who report within a few minutes of 8.45 can hope to secure one of the late afternoon periods.

Number of Crew Men Great

It is harder to tell how great the increase in outdoor sports has been, but there has been a general increase, and in rowing it has been particularly conspicuous. Most graduates remember the time when only a few men rowed at Harvard. Since then the number of the men on the river has enormously increased; in fact it has doubled since 1920. "Rowing for the many" is not merely a phrase at Harvard, but a fact. In the spring of 1922, 632 men rowed; last autumn (1922) 552 men rowed, and there were 37 eights on the river, in addition to fours, doubles, and single sculls. Rowing has been particularly popular among the Freshmen; last autumn 189 Freshmen rowed in 21 eights, and 65 Freshmen rowed in singles. It is believed that the rowing squad at Harvard is the largest athletic unit in an American college.

This development is most satisfactory and your committee is desirous to see it continue. The suggestion has been heard that the prescription of exercise be continued after the Freshman year; but it seems to us better to make the most of the present situation by providing every possible facility for optional exercise for upperclassmen. There is a real danger that the University, if it is not able to increase athletic facilities, will be in the position of saying to Fresh-