THE WAY TO FALL DOWN.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 124, 26 May 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE WAY TO FALL DOWN.

Why Drunken Ken and Children aro

so Often Unhurt.

'The special providence that seems to hover over drunken men and children has something of an explanation,' said a well-known and eminent medical man.to a reporter, ' in the fact of the main cause of the breakage of the bones from falls being from a resistance of the tendons more ofben bhan from the violence of the shock incident to the actual fall. A child, or an_ intoxicated person will rarely endeavour with any great effort to recover their balance when they slip or topple over. Hence no special resisting force is experienced, and they sink into a collapsed heap without serious injury. When an adult in possession of his sound senses undertakes, with endless contortions and gyrations to save himself from going down, he draws every muscle and sinew taut, and if the wrench is too severe the bono breaks. There is no way of definitely proving it, bat it ie asserted, and I believe with some show of truth, that some, at least, of the fractures resulting from fall, especially from a height, happen before the actual shock with the substanoe one falls on occurs. It's strange, but I guess it is tho truth,'