TOLL OF THE SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 7

TOLL OF THE SEA.

SYDNEY CASUALTIES. I "BLUEBOTTLES" AND !! SUNBURN. 1 I MEDIC All CONTROVERSIES. 1 1 (From Oar Own Correspondent.) j SYDNEY. January 25. Now that the surfing season is upon us j the countless thousands who throngj Sydney's wonderful beaches throughout!' the summer are enlarging their experi-j ences not only of the 6ea and its ways. I but of the minor disadvantages that i swimming in Australian waters under a tropical sun always carries in its train. One of these contingencies which I detract rather seriously from the joy | of surfing is the "bluebottle"—the little! jellyfish or mollusc, which ever it should be called, which haunts our beaches in | myriads during the hot season. Though, bluebottles look insignificant enough and individually are not very dangerous enemies, yet when they are njarehalled in their thousands, even the strongest «wimmer is forced to regard them with trepidation. The poison ejected from their tentacles through their dart-like stings ifi not only painful but j>aralysing and there are said to be cases recorded of strong men who have actually died as a consequence of these attacks. Happily such tragedies have occurred very rarely, but every week-end a certain number of people suffer for their temerity in surfing or swimming in waters which til? bluebottles happen to be infesting. This ; summer surfing is at least as popular, as ever, the beaches are thronged on every hot day, and the casualty list ; credited to the bluebottle is sometimes 1 very large and long. j Orer 100 Surfers Stoag. Yesterday (Sunday, January 24) more! than 100 surfers were stung at Maroubra and another beach, 60 received first •id at Cronulla, and two of the Eastern

nurses worked on until late rn the Suburbs ambulance staff assisted by two evening treating long queues of surfers —more than 500 in all—who bad suffered from bluebottles during the day. On Sunday this one ambulance used up eight bags of blue and one pound weight I of ammonia—the cures usually applied 'to relieve the intense pain that the bluebottles cause. Xot long since a well-known swimmer lost a chance of winning an important race through being stung, and one of our foremost tennis girls, who wae expected to win the X.S.W. championship, was compelled to withdraw from the tournament and spend some days in bed because she had met a bluebottle while surfing at the week-end. Obviously j bluebottles arc facts that must be taken linto serious consideration by all who !»urf and swim along our coasts. j The other danger which threatens the J comfort and health of bathers here even more i>ersiste!itly and assiduously tlian | blue bottles or sharks is sunburn. Every- ■ body who knows the Sydney Iteachcs is familiar with the deep brown complexion which the skin can attain here when ■constantly exposed to sun and m'ji; and 'the effects of "sun-bathing." the process | by which this rich mahogany tint is ' usually acquired. have been hotly dclwted ever since surfing became an j established institution here. ; From the aesthetic standf>oint the effects of sun-ba thin™. carried to extremes, may be open to discussion. But many doctors maintain that, quite apart from the artistic gain or loss, the sun-bathing process, carried beyond a certain points, is distintcly injurious to health. About two years ago a heated controversy was carried on for some time in the local newspapers, with sun-bathing as the theme, and several doctors contended not only that persistent sunliatliing injured the nervous system, bul that it is possible to trace to this prac I tice the beginning of skin-cancer, a i! disorder which is peculiarly prevalent ii ; . Australia. This may represent ai ■ j extreme view of the case. 1 Similar to Scalding. ' | There is no doubt, however, that sun | burning, whether deliberate or accider ,tal, can have much the eame effect o jthe system as a severe scalding. To-da ej (January 251 it was reported in tl -j~Sun" that "three children have l**e t admitted to hospital recently dange niously ill and in agony after a day i

the sun." In one case '"doctors and nurses worked strenuously for 48 hours ■ to save the life of the child."' In two ca«es young children, between two and • six years old, "were almost unconscious > from the pain of the bums —they were . blistered about the face, body and arms, 1 and their condition could hardly have ■ been more serious if they had fallen into hot water or flames/' r One well-known medical man had said ' emphatically that in his opinion it is ' most dangerous to allow a child's skin 9 to be exposed for any great length of time to the heat of the sun; and if * children are allowed to play about on 9 the beaches in bathing costume they I; should be exposed to the beat only for 'a few minutes together, so that the skin j i browns slowly. j The e\idence certainly seems to show e that this is true in the case of children, n and if this is so. it is evident that long„'continued sun bathing in its earlier _ ! stajres must carry with it serious possi- < bilities of injury to the body, and t , especially the nervous system of adults n a> well. j But unfortunately this practice has s'now become a definite cult, with so many s ardent \ otaries that the doctors are r more likely to gain converts when they n talk of blue-bottles than when they warn us against the sun.