Tài liệu University Oars Being a Critical Enquiry Into the After Health of the Men Who Rowed in the

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University Oars

University Oars is a compilation of letters of response to the author from the

participants of the Oxford and Cambridge boat races. John Edward Morgan,

himself a former university oarsman and physician to the Manchester Royal

Infirmary, spent four years sending inquiries and compiling responses in his

effort to shed some light on an important perceived physiological problem

which he sought to investigate for the welfare of the rising generation.

Published in 1873, his responses numbered 251 out of 255 letters sent to

university oarsmen, detailing the athletes’ current physical and mental

condition. Morgan’s findings dispel the widely held notion of the time that

the famous test of strength and endurance had adverse latent physiological

and psychological effects on its stalwart participants.

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University Oars

Being a Critical Enquiry Into the After Health

of the Men Who Rowed in the Oxford and

Cambridge Boat-Race, from the Year 1829 to

1869, Based on the Personal Experience of the

Rowers Themselves.

John Edward Morgan

CAMBRIDgE UnIvERSIty PRESS

Cambridge, new york, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape town, Singapore,

São Paolo, Delhi, Dubai, tokyo

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, new york

www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108000581

© in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2009

This edition first published 1873

This digitally printed version 2009

ISBn 978-1-108-00058-1 Paperback

This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect

the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated.

Cambridge University Press wishes to make clear that the book, unless originally published

by Cambridge, is not being republished by, in association or collaboration with, or

with the endorsement or approval of, the original publisher or its successors in title.

UNIVERSITY OARS.

UNIVERSITY OARS

BEING

A CRITICAL ENQUIRY INTO THE AFTER HEALTH

OF THE MEN WHO ROWED IN THE

FROM THE YEAR 1829 TO 1869,

BASED ON THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE

ROWERS THEMSELVES.

JOHN ED. MORGAN, M.D., M.A. OXON., F.R.C.P.

LATE CAPTAIN OF THE JOHN + (COLL. UNIV.), PHYSICIAN TO THE MANCHESTER

ROYAL INFIRMARY, AUTHOR OF " DETERIORATION OF RACE," &C

' Row and work, boys of England, on rivers and seas,

And the old land shall hold, firm as ever, her own."

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1873.

[All Rights reserved.^

DEDICATED BY PERMISSION

TO

THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE DENMAN,

SENIOR CLASSIC,

FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

WINNER OF THE COLQUHOUN SCULLS

AND

UNIVERSITY OAR.

INTRODUCTION.

T HE following pages contain the results of an enquiry

into the after health of University Oars, which has

been carried out with more or less interruption during

the last four years. It was commenced in the spring of

the year 1869. I then hoped to obtain the information

which I needed in the course of twelve or eighteen

months, but I soon found that the labour which I had

undertaken was likely to prove more arduous and more

tedious than I had anticipated. A certain portion of

the rowers still retained their names on the College

Books; but many (39) were dead, and a still larger

number had disappeared, and whither they had directed

their steps it was no easy matter to ascertain. When,

therefore, I had applied to all their surviving fellow￾Oarsmen without avail, and when also I had written to

many of their College contemporaries without discover￾ing any trace of their habitation, I had no resource left

but to search the different town and county Directories.

Twenty-seven of the Oars had, however, gone abroad, or

emigrated, and were either residing in our Colonies or in

other parts of the world, and the only method I could

discover of obtaining information regarding several of

viil INTRODUCTION.

them, was to write to persons bearing the same name

in this country. Moreover when I had actually suc￾ceeded in obtaining the addresses of those who were

missing it was not always easy to extract a reply

to my troublesome enquiries. That such should be the

case was nothing more than might be anticipated, as

questions respecting health, proceeding from a complete

stranger, must always be looked upon with a certain

amount of suspicion. The subject of our ails and our

aches is a somewhat delicate one. When therefore my

hygienic appeals were consigned to the fire or the waste

paper basket, it seemed a politic measure to allow some

time to elapse ere I renewed my importunate requests,

while at the same time I endeavoured to obtain through

the assistance of common friends, or some of our leading

rowing authorities, either a personal introduction, or at

all events some recognition of the importance of my

researches.

Another difficulty with which I have had to contend

has arisen from the numerous inaccuracies which more

or less pervade all the lists of the University Oarsmen,

inaccuracies which very materially detract from the

value of those records. I have learnt also from painful

experience that neither the University Calendars nor

the College Books can be implicitly trusted. The mis￾placement or alteration of initial letters, and the mis￾spelling of surnames, virtually substitute some illegiti￾mate stranger for the rightful possessor of an Oar.

These and similar reasons will I believe serve as some

INTRODUCTION. IX

apology for the length of time occupied in making this

enquiry, more especially as the work has been carried on

in the few leisure hours I could snatch from the toils

of an arduous and exacting profession. Had I, in the

case of some twenty or twenty-five men, contented my￾self with the accounts I received from contemporaries

and friends, without searching on in quest of those still

missing till one by one they were discovered, the

results of this enquiry might have appeared some two

years sooner. I have, however, felt strongly that the

whole value of such an investigation must depend upon

its being exhaustive ; and when I mention the fact that

out of the 255 Oarsmen who were alive at the end of the

year 1869, I have succeeded in obtaining letters from

251, it will be admitted that it would not be practicable

to have carried the enquiry very much farther. Three

of those from whom I have not received letters belong

to the University of Oxford, and one is a graduate of

Cambridge. To each of them I have addressed several

communications, but hitherto without avail. Another

old Oar, though he has favoured me with full particulars

regarding his health, has requested me to refrain from

publishing his name. In numerous cases I have re￾ceived the information I solicited through the assistance

of kind friends and well-known authorities in all that

relates to the University Boat-Race. Although it is

perhaps somewhat invidious to mention particular names

when so many have assisted, I still cannot refrain from

specially thanking my brother, the Rev. H. A. Morgan,

X INTRODUCTION'.

Jesus College, Cambridge, Mr Charles Stuart Parker,

M.R, Mr Halifax Wyatt, Mr Smyly, Mr S. D. Darbi￾shire, Mr George Morrison, the Rev. Arthur Shadwell,

and Mr Thomas Selby Egan, besides a very large

number of clergymen who have rendered me much

help in tracing old Oars who happened at any time

to have been located in their respective parishes. To

the clergy, therefore, among whose ranks may be

found a large number of the most accomplished dis￾ciples of the Bat and the Oar which the Universities

have turned out, I am deeply indebted for the kindness

and courtesy which they have invariably extended to

me. Press of business has frequently prevented me

from acknowledging letters at the time they were re￾ceived. I would now beg to offer my apologies to my

correspondents for such apparent neglect, and to return

them my sincere thanks for their disinterested kind￾ness.

The Inter-University Races from 1829 to 1869 (both

years included) will be found chronologically arranged

and dealt with separately, in the following manner :

after a short description of each Race and a list of the

Oarsmen who took part therein, I have considered the

life-expectation of the united Crews (16 men in all), and

summarized the effects of Rowing on their after health.

This summary is succeeded by extracts from the letters

of the surviving Rowers in due order, those passages

being selected in which the writers refer to their own

personal experience. In some instances, however, in