SWIFT, LINDSAY (1856-1. An American librarian, bibliographer. and literary historian, born in Boston. A graduate of Harvard (1877), he became associated in various bibliographical capacities with the Boston Public Library, and made valuable contributions, editorial and origi nal, to the study of early American literature and history. The most noteworthy of his books is Brook Farm (1900), an essay on New Eng land transcendentalism. Noteworthy also is a monogra ph on .1/u.s.wch asc Ifs Election ;Sermons. SWIMMING (from mein', AS., 0110. swim /nun, er. to ; connected with Guth. salt al Si, pond, and ultimately With Eng. swamp). The act by which an animal progresses in the water. .Man is the only animal who does not swim naturally, yet keeping the head above the water is an act which most human beings may easily learn.
The swimming of quadrupeds amounts simply to walking in the water, whereas man has adopt ed many kinds of stroke besides the dog-paddle method by which most land animals propel them selves. These methods involve swimming, on the breast, With a broad sweep of the arms and a frog-like motion of the legs: swimming on the snit., and swimming on the hack. He has also learned to float and to tread water. In the lat ter case the body is held in a perpendicular position and the hands and feet beat down ward. The old sidle stroke is the favorite style for long-distance racing. It consists of three alternate motions, an under-arm and an over arm stroke, and a scissors leg stroke, coming be tween the two arm strokes. The Trudgeon stroke is a form of swimming introduced into England a few years ago from the South Pacific. This is now very popular among all civilized swimmers, and is one of the fastest of all strokes for short distances. It consists of alternate overhead strokes, with a frog kick simultaneous with one of the arm strokes, the body swimming on the belly. A modification of this stroke was intro duced a few years ago by Alexander Metrert, the famous American amateur mile-ehampion, in which the head and forearm are kept submerged as the body is pushed forward. the body being turned from the waist and the face brought above the water as the body cheeks between strokes. This style of swimming admits of freer animation and obviates any cramped position of the head. It is used by some of the best Ameri can swimmers.
The home cif organized swimming is England. International swimming races between the vari ous parts of the United Kingdom arc held an nually, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge include swimming on the list of inter-university sports, and inter-collegiate competitions take place within the universities themselves. An amalgamation of clubs in 1860 first brought swimming miller organized control. and this asso
ciation developed, under several successive names. into the Amateur Swimming Association in 1886. England and the Australian colonies easily head the world in feat swimmers. In ad dition to, the Amateur Swimming Association. practical good has come to the art by the establishment of classes of already g„,10,1 swim mers to he further instructed in the methods of rescuing drowming, persons. and resuscitating, those apparently exhausted. Diving has been carried to a greater degree of perfection in Swe den than in any other Mint the English practice has been confined to the stand ing or running dive with the succeeding, under water swim, a very useful accomplishment where life-saving is the object, as the body thereby en ters the water with a strong impulse and in the line of the desired direction: but in Sweden the dive from platforms from forty to sixty feet above the surface, singly and in platoons, and either directly or horizontally, or with inter mediate somersaults, has been developed.
In the United :states, the \\ est is ahead of the East both in general illleresi and participa tion. especially beyond the several world's reeords have been approached. The first championship races were held in I.577 by the Nt'N1* York Athletic Club, and were annual there after up 1,1 Iss8. excepting the years In 1681 the management was ceded to the Ama teur Athletic t Mop. lu Isoll an indoor meet was added. The development in time made is shown in the record of the first meet in 1877, when R. Weissenborn won the mile in a quarter of a minute slower than the present American record. The 100-yard event was estab lished at the thin] meet, 1883, when A. F. Camacho won in 1:2SI Water polo is a department of swimming that has become very popular since it was first recog nized as a sport, and there are leagues and na tional and international championships in Ire land, England. and Scotland (where the game is called water football). Wales, the States, Canada, Indira, Australia, and NeW R is played with an Association foot ball (the round ball) in a bath or open water by seven swimmers on each side. The goals are from 19 to 30 yards apart with goal posts at each end. The game is started by the referee throwing the ball into the centre between the line of teams. The ball can be hit or thrown by any player providing he is not standing ;Ind only uses one haml. Fouls are a wanted for vari ous breaches of rules, the penalty being a free throw for the opposing party. The duration ,,f the game is 14 minutes, 7 ouch way; a goal is scored when the ball passes through the goal posts and under the cross bar.