The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-09-11 00:00:00

HINTS TO BATHERS.

Every Stirnmer brings its swilist of drowning& through
cramp. and this season they have been rather more
Illamelons than usual. The real nature of the muscular
parslysis which su idenly rinks even the strongest and
most expert swimmers without a moment's warning is
rem wily very much a matter of conjecture. The
result in in the majority of cases fatal, and, even where
the suffirtr is savtd, the shock, followed by insensi-
bility pre ten; s him from clearly remetubering the
symptoms. Ac nling to the corumim theory, the cramp
Pr rms the swimmer's leg, but the Lancet questions this.
Though disabled for the moment from swimming, there
lieu reason why a man with cramp in the leg should
not flat; indeed, to throw himself on his back w th
legs tnateuded would be almost an instinctive impulse,
and in that psi ion tie could easily maintain himself
without an effort, especially if accustomed to the
water. It is the terrible characteristic of the.ti seizures
that the victim goes down instantly, and without
struggle. This our medical contemporary is disposed
to attribute, not to the stiffening of a limb. but to
cramp ot the respiratory muscles, by which the expan-
sion id the longs is checked or the air therein expel el ;
tlms deprived tf its buoyancy, the body sinks. Swim-
fig undoubtedly puts a considerable strain on these
no-cl•-• and there is plausibility in the theory, though
it is d•fh mit to ascertain the truth with certainty.
The sutject is well worthy of further investigstiou.
Much would he gained if only some warming simptoms
c mild be pointed out for the guittarice of swimmers,
wto might then strike out for the shore before the
cramp actually came ,0

ISIPORTAN T TO BATHER 3.
The following rules were issued last year by the Royal
Minus.. Society and as the bathin g it non is now at its
heidit, the directions cannot be too widely circulated :
Avoid banding within two hours after a meal. Avoid
bathing when exhausted by fatigue. or from any
other cause. Avoid bathing when toe body is cooling
after perspiration; but bathe when tl.e body is warm,
provided to time is lost in getting into the wat.r.
Avoid chilling the body by sitting or standing naked on
the batiks or in boats after havitg been in the water.
Avoid remaining too long in the water; leave the
water immediately there is the slightest feeling of
chilliven. Avoid batting altogeth. rinti e open air, if
after having been a short time in the water there is a
sense I chilliness, with numblitas of the bands allfi Get.
The vigorous and strong may bathe early in the morning
on an empty stomach ; the young. and those that are
weak, bad better bathe three hours after a meal—the
beat time for such is from two to three bouts after
fins-fast. Those who are subject to attacks of giodi-
mess 1110 i faintness, and those who suff.r from palpita-
tion and iitiar set se of diic nifort at the heart. should
Dlit bathe without lint consulting their medical ad-
viser,—lty older of the committee, LAIIITON YOUNG,

S<eretary.

MR. GEORGE DAWSON ON EDUCATION.
tinde-

The memorial stone 14 what is called an v.
nornMational Fchool was laid on Friday in last week,
at Birusingbam by Mrs. Dixon, wife of the member f.r
the borough. Mr. George Dawson was lone of the
epeskeys on the occasion. He remarked that thonAh
in no sense himself a minister of the Church of En•
gland. nor yet a Dissenting minister. he was '• a minis-
ter of all denominations " aid a minister of no denono•
nation at all. As a teacher of religion as he conceived
it—though he was told that his conception was entirely
wrong—he had great pletwure in supporting the move-
ment on behalf of an nnelenotninational ectiool. He
was avow.dly a latitudinarian, glorying in the title,
having art ived at it after years of patient thought and
painful consideration. They were on the eve of a
controversy before which the little controversies about
free members, ballot boxes, and other such prelimi-
Danl. became insignificant. That controversy WSW
—by what means shall r•ery child in this nation have
given to him the blewsings of education? It WAS not a
new controversy, hut It was going to be entered
into on a larger scale and with a better feeling and a
better understanding of the fundamental principle's
than there had been before. They ntuet get ready for
that controversy. Every principle involved in it they
woold have to discuss, and he hoped to see the fallacies
of Rsdicaliem on that subject dissipated, and the
dreams of voluntaryism dispelled. Some of their DlA-
eenti, g bre•hren. with the beet intent'i us in the
wild, had sisually erred in the course they had taken,
but it was likely they would now become penitent
(they would excuse them the candle and the sheet).
and they would now understand that instead stf the
idle nonnenee that had been uttered about the Govern-
ment being the enemy of the people a nati,di was
11/,er so oreat as when lookiog on its Government ast
the ex•cutaut of the national wilL The voluntary
principle was admirable, but it was a makeshift. They
noght a. w•II say that the streets ought to be watered
on the voluntary ; hut experience told
them that it was est that the road. should be
wst.red at the expense of the ratepayer, and
it was time that the education of children should be
put in the same position. There were clergymen in
this town who said that they would rather have no
education than education without what they presumed
to call " religion." He was delighted to differ from
them as widely as possible, arid he recommended to
their consideration the following proposition—that the
world was never the worse for the inures's° of know-
ledge. The communication even of a single fact .801
a blessing to the world, a sign of advancement and a
guarantee of progress. It were better to have secular
knowledge without religious knowledge, than neither;
it were better to be a learned blackguard than an `.111•
learned blackguard. If he were to be knocked down
at all be you'd rather be knocked d iwn by,,ne who
knew the Latin tongue than by one who knew it 11.. t.
an.l he C.,lligi not conceive how any man having a child
of hie own could say that he would rather have n.s
education at all than education without religion.
Thom, to whom the kioghou of heaven was Shut had
all the more reason to demand that the kingdom of the
earth should be open to them.