Pehr Ling's Treatise on Physical Development

Pehr Henrik Ling (Peter Henry Ling)

Born: 15th of November, 1766
Smaland, Sweeden

Died 3rd of May, 1839

The following are the general laws which Ling has laid down in his Treatise on Physical Development:

1. Every just attempt to develop the powers of the human being - mental or corporeal - is properly education.
2. Every movement should have proper relation to the organization of the body; whatever transgresses the laws of that organism is irrational. 
3. The sphere of the activity of the muscles and the laws of gravitation determine the limits of a movement of the body.
4. Every movement, however simple and slight it may appear to be, acquires its character from the nature of the whole organism, and each part of the body, within the limits of its own function and office, ought to participate in that movements. 
5. To arrive at a healthful development of the body, it is necessary to begin at the primitive type of each movement; this study should be exact, and can never be considered trifling or unimportant by any one who knows that every movement is either simple or composite. 
6. In physical order, as in moral order, simple things are the most difficult to apprehend, thence one can not too zealously study simple movements. 
7. A movement is nothing worth if it is not correct, that is if it is not in conformity with the laws of the organism. 
8. The body, whose different parts are not in harmony, is not in harmonious accord with the mind. 
9. The aim of movements as a science is the proper development of the human organism. 
10. Correct movements are such as are founded on the character and temperament of the individual to be developed thereby. 
11. The organism can only be said to be perfectly developed when its several parts are in mutual harmony, corresponding to the different individual pre-dispositions. 
12. The possible development of the human body must be limited by the faculties, mental and bodily, belonging to the individual. 
13. A faculty may be blunted by want of exercise, but can never be utterly annihilated. 
14. An incorrect and misapplied movement may pervert the development of such a faculty. Consequently an incorrect movement tends rather to the disadvantage than to the gain of the harmonious development of the body. 
15. All one-sided development impedes the practice of corporeal exercise; general and harmonious development, on the contrary, facilitates it. 
16. Stiffness or immobility, in any part of the organism, is, in most instances, only an over-development, which is always attended by corresponding weakness in other parts. 
17. The over-development of one part may be diminished, and the weakness of other parts remedied, by equally distributed movements. 
18. It is not the greater or lesser power of any part that determines the strength or weakness of any individual, so much as the proportion and harmony of the several parts. Congenital and accidental disorders are not considered here, of course. 
19. A real and healthful power consists in a simultaneous action of the several parts (or in action and re-action). In order that motion and power may be developed to their highest point, they must co-operate  simultaneously in all parts. 
20. Perfect health and physical power are consequently correlative terms; both are dependent on the harmony of the several parts. 
21. In corporeal development, commencing with the simplest, you may gradually advance to the most complicated and powerful movements; and this without danger, inasmuch as the pupil has acquired the instinctive knowledge of what he is or is not capable. 

Bibliography:

Taylor, George Herbert, A.M. MD, An Exposition of the Swedish Movement-Cure. New York, Fowler and Wells Publishers, 1860