In our opinion swimming should be part of the national education. If boys and girls be taught swimming at school they will almost to a certainty practise it afterwards, but even if they do not, swimming has this advantage—it can never be forgotten. It is generally admitted that the pastime 'has great advantages over all others, that it is a most pleasant and suitable form of bodily exercise—especially for the young, who are able to maintain their bodily heat—and most important for the preservation and promotion of health. It has a beneficial influence on the blood and its circulation. Bodily exercise, when taken judiciously, is indisputably good, and many of the disturbances in the digestive organs to which mankind is now so prone would be avoided if swimming and bathing were more generally practised.
Swimming also results in very marked effects on the respi ratory organs, because the simple backward and forward move ment of the arms opens up the cavity of the chest and promotes powerful respiration, by means of which plenty of oxygen is inhaled and much waste matter given off. Deep and calm breathing is promoted in place of short and superficial gasps. Good respiration also facilitates the circulation and purification of the blood, and accelerates the process of renewal and ex change of material in all parts of the body. The strengthening of the digestive organs tends to increase the muscular and mental capacities of men, thereby proving the truth of the old adage, Mens sana in corpore sano.' But in spite of all this, swimming has not, up to the present, been systematically taught, and the legislature does not seem to ':ave recognised that, apart from the consideration that a knowledge of it is invalua ble to any man from a life-preserving and life-saving point of view, swimming, from a hygienic standpoint, is essentially the pastime which should be indulged in by the young.
Comments on the curious fact that so many English men and women are unable to swim are usually made in daily papers after some melancholy boating accident which, by nature of its magnitude, appeals to the people at large ; but as soon as the excitement for the time being is over, the subject is allowed to drop, and the chance of doing real good lost. Ordinary drowning accidents, with the subsequent verdicts of accidental death,' are continually reported, and cause little or no remark. Yet a vast number of these would be prevented if swimming were generally taught. The time may come when the reproach that one can neither swim nor read will be con sidered as indicative of a notorious dunce, as it was in the days of Aristotle.
A considerable amount of attention has been given to the construction of mechanical appliances suitable for use by persons desirous of becoming acquainted with the art of nata Lion, and a search through the records at the Patent Office abundantly proves how much time, thought, and money have been wasted upon the protection of crude and utterly illogical ideas. The majority of the patents consist of air bladders,
buoys, and floats, the inventors of which appear to have lacked even the elementary knowledge necessary for success, and to have employed their minds simply in the construction of some appliance which would keep a would-be swimmer on the surface without regard to the position of the body. Not a few of the patented mechanical appliances may be likened to some of the complications called life-saving ap paratus,' which work remarkably well in theory, but in prac tice are absolute fail ures. .
It would serve no useful purpose to give a detailed account of all the eccentric ideas which sanguine inventors have been at the trouble and expense to protect ; but it will doubtless be interesting, and to a certain extent amusing, to give a general idea of the main points which have guided those persons who have endeavoured to benefit the public, and at the same time themselves, by their schemes, and it may be of service to the sport by leading up to the invention of something practical and useful.
From a study of the various patents, it would seem that webbed gloves have been a favourite device. The conception is good, but that most important fact that a swimmer cannot keep the fingers extended in the water, as shown in fig. r, has been entirely overlooked. Such a position of the fingers would cause great inconvenience, overstrain the muscles, and very possibly result in an attack of cramp. This specimen of a patent is termed an improved apparatus for swimming,' but the organisation of man in no way indicates that Nature intended him to imitate aquatic birds. The object of the inventor seems to have been to remedy what he considered a defect. He suggests in his specification that by spreading out the fingers during the pro pelling part of the stroke a com paratively large surface will be presented to the water, and, con sequently, the propelling action will be greatly increased. This suggestion apparently induced others to try and improve upon the patent by adding a webbed fin as in fig. 2. How this in genious contrivance would work in actual practice can easily be seen by reference to the diagram, if the reader at the same time brings to mind the way in which the arms are moved by a person swimming. If flying were a common prac tice, this invention might be useful, but for swimming it is positively ridiculous.