[Letters to Editor]

Abstract

The bathing—I might almost say the drowning—season is now about to begin, and many lives will unhappily be lost. As the human frame, bulk for bulk, is lighter than water, all that is needful to save life is to permit the body to sink until it shall displace as much water as equals the body's weight. Then paddle gently, as the lower animals do, with hands and feet, the head being held erect, wherever it is desired to go. This direction being carried out is absolutely all that is needful under ordinary conditions to preserve life. These few directions ought to be stuck up in every bathing-place—every boating and skating-place—in the three kingdoms. Children in every instance ought to be made to tread water from the earliest age, say in shallow slate baths with blood-warm water, or, when convenient and suitable, in some river, pond, or in the open sea. A leather belt with ring, and a stout rod with line and hook, are employed by Portuguese mothers to instruct their children. The mother, rod in hand, stands on the brink; the child learns in the water. In Paris swimming-schools the same procedure is resorted to. The business cannot be begun too soon. I saw mere infants sustaining themselves perfectly in the tepid waters of Africa. Treading water is far safer than swimming in a broken sea. Every adult, man or woman, who has not practised it should begin. Once the conviction instilled that the body is lighter than water, the risk of drowning is reduced to zero. The process involves no uncertainty, no delay. Very different from swimming, it can be acquired at once.