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To the capable hands of the Physios, under the supervision of the Surgeon-in-Chief, Dr. Michael Hoke, and their enthusiastic Director, Miss Alice Lou Plastridge, is intrusted the work with legs and arms and backs damaged by Polio, the carefully charted exercises which have in every case produced improvement. The Physios are an important part of life at the Colony. They are very pleasant to watch -- a squad of lean, brown, alert young women on the job at the pools each day in bathing suits, back at the Inn for luncheon in sports clothes that match their tan, watching the walking exercises in the afternoon, giving out the charm of their abundant vitality when the day's work is done and the members of the Colony group themselves about for relaxation. Their relationship to the people they treat is peculiarly close.

"That's my Physio," the children point out with proprietorship, "That tall one with black hair."

As it is for daily exercise in the waters of Warm Springs that the members of the Foundation colony have come, to the pool they go each day but Sunday. Busses or private cars take them the short distance down the hill. One of the surprises to the stranger on the Foundation grounds is the ease with which people who can walk only with difficulty, drive cars. Again the example of the Governor of New York has been followed -- in equipping automobiles with hand controls which substitute hand work for foot work and make driving possible.

Surrounded by individual dressing booths opening upon cement walks along which wheel chairs are easily pushed about, the pools are filled with water so beautiful in color and clearness that to see it for the first time is to exclaim. Above -- a smooth white cement bottom it ripples, tropically blue and caressing to the touch. There are three pools, one enclosed and two open. The exercise and treatment given by the Physios under water are made more valuable because this water permits immersion for long periods without becoming enervated. Buoyancy gives aid.

I saw a woman hanging on to one of the iron bars at the side of the pool, lift a badly paralyzed leg upward while floating on her chest.

"I can barely move it while lying in bed," she declared, "but here, look, how fair I can bring it up!"

Reclining on tables built in the pools, the patients receive the treatment which has been prescribed by the medical staff.

"You see down here in the water we've gotten rid of Old Man Gravity," a man who was exercising told me "That helps like heck. And the Physios know their stuff. There's got to be co-ordination -- exact work by the Physios -- all the help the patient can give himself -- with the favorable condition of working under water."

Being unable to walk does not mean being unable to swim. Almost every Warm Springs patient learns to swim. Many a newcomer has never been in deeper water than a full bath tub.

"Just relax," the Physio tells the novice. "Keep your hips up. Just like you were lying on a bed. Put your head back. Now bring your arms up to your chest. Throw them straight out and bring them back against your sides. Push! That's it!"

Bright-hued bathing caps bob about, tanned arms flash out and churn the water. At the inner pool, a tall, lithe girl, who is a Physio, keeps vigil under one of the orange umbrellas which stand colorfully about. There are stalwart young men, ready to lift the more helpless when their aid is needed, sun-browned to the color of the Indians who once lived at Warm Springs. One of these youths comes from Martha Berry's famous school.

An institution of the pools is Sarah. To the Northerner she is a most diverting person. Here, there, and everywhere, pouring olive oil on skins that have not known the sun, adjusting bathing suits, fetching towels, wheeling chairs.

"Yas'm," she informs, "I was born right here in Warm Springs. Six years I've been with the Foundation. Befo' that, too -- when there was jes' bo'ders up at the hotel."

Tall, gaunt, black, old, with her sun hat and bony hands, Sarah is everybody's friend. Kindliness, solicitude, encouragement slip away from her.

"Cose yo' can learn to swim. Come to yo' all at once. Fust thing yo' knows yo'll be going right across the pool by yo'self. Yas, ma'am!"

Work at the pools, with physical examinations, take up Warm Springs mornings. When the ravenous appetites induced by exercise are satisfied by luncheon, a well-earned period of rest follows. Complete physical relaxation is urged.

To the afternoons is assigned, walking exercises. Aided and encouraged by the Physios, walking is practised and stairs which have been purposely erected out under the trees are tackled. Hand railings furnish support and patiently, eagerly, steps are taken, and little by little gain is registered. Not a day is missed unless illness intervenes.

The daily life at the Colony is so lively and spirited that a lay man might almost miss the stern, relentless routine of treatment which must be undergone if the maximum of good is to be gained. It is not an easy routine and it is under the closest sort of medical direction, for the program represents the most advanced knowledge available on the subject. During the year many doctors from this country and from abroad visit the Foundation and all patients come to Warm Springs through their own physicians.