THE KIDNEY PUNCH.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 95, 5 December 1911, Page 8

THE KIDNEY PUNCH.

A DOCTOR’S OPINION. Dor some time past an agitation has been in progress to bar the kidney punch, because of its dangerous nature from a health point of view, and it has now been declared illegal. One of the foremost kidney specialists in London, interviewed in regard to this aspect of the case, gave it as his decided opinion that blows on the back in the region of the kidneys are extremely dangerous, and added: “When a man undertakes to administer such a blow, and administers it repeatedly, then I say that he is taking a great responsibility upon himself. It is a case of reaching the limit without knowing it. The immediao effect may be partial or complete incapacitation, the degree varying on circumstances. The subsequent effects might bo of groat gravity. I .should certainly not care to bo a spectator of a contest where blows arc showered on the kidneys. 1 should have little inclination to sit and watch it, being aware as 1 should be, of the risk involved.” Boxing is, of course, not a parlour game. It is a fine, manly sport if conducted in the propel' spirit, and the risks ordinarily attaching to it are not greater than in the majority of games of a strenuous nature. When a danger is obvious there is, however, no reason why it should continue to exist, lienee the barring of the kidney punch. There is a suggestion of foulness about the punch, and it will not for a moment be contended that the abolition of tin l kidney blow will detract from a boxing match as a spectacle. The deire to administer (be blow is undoubtedly responsible for a good deal if the clinching which has caused modern boxing to lose so much of its ’ttraciiVencss. The barring of the blow will malm for the improvement of the sport rather than work it any harm.