The Bather's Bogey.

Evening Star, Issue 7752, 25 October 1888, Page 4

The Bather's Bogey.

[By One Who Doesn't Believe in- Him.] Cramp, that terrible bogey of inexperienced bathers and ignorant jurymen, turns up as regularly in the silly season as the two-column correspondence ot the ' Daily Telegraph.' He has begun his old tricks again, aud has already taken victims from east coast, west coast, and south coast, from river and inland pond. The reports of his misdeeds have made the holiday-making materfamilias almost afraid to venture her toes in the tempting wavelets, and have driven the courageous nymph who had nearly learned to swim (with only one foot at the bottom) back to the radius of the friendly rope. In face of these alleged achievements, it may seem disrespectful to Bogey if I venture to hint that he is not the terrible Mr Hyde thai he is supposed to be —that, in short, he is utterly incapable of any serious offence. Ido not mean to suggest that cramp is not a most unpleasant and painful affection, whenever and wherever met with. I have seen a strong man when seized by it in the football field or on the cinder path hop about in agony as though his leg were broken. I have known it possess a kneeling bridegroom at the most solemn moment of his existence, and compel him to extend his flexed leg so suddenly as to scatter bridesmaids and bouquets in confusion. But cramp, excruciating torture as it is, is no more dangerous to life on land than "pins-and-needles" or toothache, and no more perilous to the swimmer than a mouthful of cold water taken involuntarily. Almost every day during the bathing season one sees it reported in the newspapers that a swimmer has been seized by cramp and drowned. In cases of this kind there are three points especially noteworthy: first, that the victim's first signal of distress is the elevation of his arms, frequeDtly with a piteous cry; secondly, that after submersion he seldom rises to the surface ; and thirdly, that even when the body has been almost immediately recovered all efforts at resuscitation are unavailing. These things are strange to the practised swimmer, who knows that if all his limbs were paralysed by cramp he need not drown or die, provided that the water were moderately smooth, and that the shore was in sight or help within hail. The last thing a swimmer would do if suffering from cramp or exhaustion in these circumstances would be to throw up his arms—an action which, in accordance with the laws of gravity, must ' inevitably be followed by the immediate i submerbion of the respiratory orifices. In | swimming, as in other exercises, habit becomes instinct, and the experienced bather when in difficulties would as soon think of lifting up his arms as of putting his nose under water. This elevation of the arms is indeed one of the most significant! symptoms of the typical cases to which I have referred. It is not the reasoned action of a man in his senses, but the convulsive effort of a man struck by a mortal blow. Cramp, 1 believe, is only dangerous to bathers in so far as the work of combating it tends to exhaustion. It cannot kill anybody, or compel a swimmer to instantly abandon his efforts and sink like a stone.

Depend upon it, the poor fellow who throws up his arms with that heartrending cry is face to face with a foe far more fearful than cramp, and is unconscious for the moment of his danger from drowning. In all human probability death has carried him off, even before the tips of his uplifted fingers disappear beneath the water. Nevertheless, five or six days hence, when the lifeless body is washed ashore, the coroner will talk to the jury of t}ie fatal dangers of cramp, and the twelve good men and true will record their conviction that death resulted from drowning—a verdict which, if not untrue, is as unsatisfactory as that of the Deptford jury which the other day declared that Donovan, the diver, met with his death " by jumping into the Thames," in face of the probability that ho died from jumping on to the abutmentsof Hungerford Bridge—that is, by not jumping into the river. Until the law demands that medical evidence shall be taken at every inquest, 50

per cent of the verdicts recorded by coroners' juries will continue to be absolutely worthless. If there be anyone who wishes to shufile off this mortal coil with a certain amount of distinction, and at the same time to provide handsomely for his surviving relatives, I would advise him to insure his life heavily, to purchase, say in London, a bottle of prussic acid, and to bathe with the bottle—say at Margate. Let him, when fifty yards from the shore, drink the poison and drop the bottle. At the subsequent inquest evidence will certainly be offered that he was seized with cramp, and the jury will as certainly decide that he (lied from drowning. From what I have said it will bo noted that if I have tried to lay one bogey I have raised another. "At all events," some reader may say, " you admit that there is something which takes the bather unawares, aud kills him. It matters little whether that something is cramp or apoplexy, whether he dies of drowning or cerebral congestion." True enough ; it matters little to him, but it matters a great deal to those who remain. Cramp is a danger that no one can guard against, and to which all are more or less liable. There is reason to believe, however, that most of the bathing accidents attributed to cramp are due to cardiac failure brought on by violent exercise—the most violent possible—in a temperature much below that of the body. The man who has a weak heart is in danger of sudden death if he swims twenty yards. He who has a heart of oak and triple brass, and will observe the simple directions of the RoyaJ Humane Society, may swim as much as he likes without fear.