The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-30 00:00:00

Floating before Swimming ; or, Every
Man his own Corks,

DEDICATED TO THE HUMANE SOCIETY.
A few practical observations on what is called swimming
may tend to save the lives of some, and teach many others
to remain easily and quietly on the surface of the water, in-
stead of making the usual violent exertions called "trying
to swim," with the attendant exhaustion and gulping of
water, which often ends in discouragement, if nothing
worse. It may draw attention to the subject to commence
with what might seem (to some) a paradox, namely, that
the movements of swimming have nothing at all to do with
the main point of safety in the water, which is—remaining
on the surface. To walk is necessary for locomotion on
land, and so is swimming for locomotion in tbo water; but
swimming could prevent nobody from going to the bottom
if he were not specifically lighter than water, that is,
naturally capable of floating in a state of stillness, It is
is fur this reason that people even take some time
in drowning themselves—that is, by overcoming their
ignorant and terrified struggles the natural buoyancy which,
it left to itself, would keep them on the surface. Without,
this buoyancy they would go down at once ; as they would
in spite of this buoyancy if they were loaded with stones,
and no swimming could have the slightest effect. Corks of
course keep people higher out o► the water, but they are
worse than superfluous, as they impede swimming, that is,
motion through the water, which is the proper meaning of
the word.

It is on account of its buoyancy that a log of light wood
floats, and not because it tan swim. The log of wood floats
because it is lighter than water, and floating does not need
an exertion of the will ; but it cannot swim, because it has
no will to exert. It displaces as much water as is exactly
equal to itself in weight, but less than itself in bulk, and the
difference of bulk remains above water.* So it is with our_
selves. Every man, woman, and child in Great Britain
would be as safe from sinking as this log of wood, if they
would think as little about it and remain equally quiet.
Nay, the fattest and heaviest out of water would be the
most buoyant in it. Any boy might float like the "buoy
at the Nore," and the fattest alderman sing " I'd be a
butterfly," poising himseif lightly on the waves. They
have simply to keep their limbo well under water, for
these, in proportion to their size, float them while
in
the water, and sink them when out of it. They may
lay themselves on their back, as in a luxurious water-bed,
and stare at the sky—' Supinos ad sidera tollite vultus.—
only keeping the mouth shut. The mere nose above water
would be huito enough for breathing, and no
,gobenzoucho d
iouche hante has any business there at all. The human
body is lighter than water by about the proportion of the
head, and the head will therefore remain above water, if
every other part be below it.t

Any practised person knows the greatest difficulty is to
dive or sink (that is, to strive against the natural buoyancy
of the body), and not to float. Let anyone try to pick up
a bright object from the bottom, in about five feet of water.
The strong resistance he meets with will convince him that
it is easier td remain at the top than to go to the bottom.
Wa may say with Moloch in Milton (but with reference to
a much denser fluid),

" Descent and fall to us are adverse—
With what compulsive and laborious flight
We sunk thus low—Th' ascent is easy then!"

The advantage of floating over swimming is, that it may
be practised in a moderate sized bath, or in any depth that
is sufficient to prevent grounding by the stern. This chief
point gained, the motions of swimming will come with the
mere desire to move about, the limbs as usual obeying the
impulse of the will. In learning to swim, instead of to goat,
we begin at the wrong end, and with the wrong notion that
swimming (instead of our own natural buoyancy) floats us
in the water. Taken in the right order, they both come
naturally—" Belier, mon ami, commencez par le commence.
mont."

When any quadruped, as a horse or dog, gets out of depth,
it finds itself at once lifted up, and floating with the head
above water, and having no fears on that score, its desire
to reach the nearest point prompts the natural motion of
the four limbs. Man has not, like the quadruped, the ad-
vantage of finding himself in the water in his ordinary po-
sition; his uninstructed reason becomes a worse guide than
the unerring instinct of the brute. Fear prompts him to
raise his arms out of the water, and then they tend to sink
him, while the necessary position of the beast's four limbs
keeps them under. Thus the efforts of the timorous to save
themselves are the very causes of their drowning. Tossing
with the arms above water, screaming with the mouth wide
open, they get out of breath, water supplies the place of
air, and they are choked or stifled—that is, drowned. But
the time that it takes to frustrate their natural buoyancy
proves the very thing they ignorantly doubted, for if not
lighter in themselves than water they would have sunk
like a stone. Nature has benevolently given us this buoyant
principle of safety in common with the Nests, and we per-
versely mar it by our ignorant terrors, and by absurdly
fancying (according to the vulgar error) that the action of
swimming, which is only moving through the water, keeps
us on the surface, and not our own natural buoyancy.

J. F. D.

* It is just the reverse with a body heavier than water ;
this displaces as much water as is eiectly equal to itself in
sulk, but not less than itself in weight, and the difference
of weight takes it to the bottom. A body of (meetly the
same specific gravity as water will remain at rest in any
part of it, and fishes have the power of adjusting themselves
to this condition. Their fins, like our limbs, serve only for
locomotion, and have nothing to do with floating them.
t A correspondent, who is as much at home in the water
as the writer of this, says—" People are continually being
drowned through their own unreasoning action, when their
lives might have been saved had they merely remained quiet
and kept their arms under water. I believe that women in
general would float naturally if they lay flat upon the water
with the face and cheek-bones (and nothing else) out of it."
Women, having smaller bones and lighter tissues than men,
are of course rather more buoyant. A few of the very thin-
nest men, with a large preponderance of bone, might find
it less easy to float.

LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOTER RAILWAY.--
The traffic receipts on the 110! miles of railway worked by
this company amounted for the week ending the 24th
inst. to £13,218, or £l2O per mile, against £7,731, or £S3
per mile, on 93 miles, for the corresponding week last year,
showing an increase of £5,487.
RAILWAY BRIDGE ACROSS LUDGATE-HILL.—Tbe
operation of swinging and fixing the first girder for
the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company's
viaduct over Ludgate-hill was commenced on Thursday by
the contractors, Messrs. Peto and Betts, and accomplished
skilfully and successfully. A body of the City police was
in attendance, and the traffic was temporarily stopped. The
great bridge ovar the Thames approaches completion, and
according to present expectations, the line will be opened
to the Ludgate station early in October.
NEW ACT ON CLERKS OF THE PEACE.—Under
an Act of Parliament just printed, on two justices
being of opinion that a clerk of the peace has been guilty of
misconduct otherwise than in the execution of his office, a
complaint in writing may be exhibited at the sessions, and
if proved he may be suspended or removed, and another
appointed. Within three months the suspended or re-
moved clerk may appeal by motion to the Lord Chancellor
in a summary manner, and his lordship may reverse, con•.
firm, or modify the decision of the general er quarter
sessions, or to remit the case with directions.

POETRY AND PROSE.—How much greater is our
nation in poetry than prose! how much better, in
general, do the productions of its spirit show in the quali-
ties of genius than in the qualities of intelligence I One
may constantly remark this in the work of individuals ;
how much more striking, in general, does any Englishman
—of some vigour of mind, but by no means a poet—seem
in his verse than in his prose. No doubt his verse suffers
from the same defects which impair his prose, and he can-
not express himself with real success in it ; but how much
more powerful a personage does he appear in it, by dint of
feeling, and of originality and movement of ideas, than when
writing prose! With a Frenchman of like stamp, it is just the
reverse : set him to write poetry, he is limited, artificial,
and impotent—sot him to write prose, he is free, natural,
and effective. The power of French literature is in its
prose-writers, the power of English literature is in its poets.
Nay, many of the celebrated French poets depend wholly
for their fame upon the qualities of intelligence which they
qualities
daliatineda
exhibit—qualities which are the distinctive support ofd
prose—many of the celebrated English prose-writers
fcluesp
are less
anden
wholly for their fame upon the qualities ofhige
genius
hnaro the
imagination which they exhibit—qualities which
said, the
distinctive support of poetry. Bat, as
of intelligence; less can be immet—the
qualities of genius are less transferable
appropriated from their product—they
ydirect and stringent intellectual agencies, though they may
d thanitte iy the
llearned
r
11 be more beautiful and divine. Shakspere and the great
Elizabethan group were certainly more gifted writers than
Corneille and his group; but what was the sequel to this
great literature of genius, as we may call it, stretching from
Marlow to Milton? What did it lead up to in English
literature? To our provincial and second-rate literature
of the 18th century. What, cn the other hand, was the
sequel to the literature of the French " great century," to
this literature of intelligence, as by comparison with our
Elizabethan literature, we may
call it, what did it lead up
top To the French literature of the nth century, one of
the most powerful and pervasive intellectual agencies that
have ever existed, the greatest European force of the 18th
century.—MATTHEW ARNOLD, in the " Cornelll Maga-
rine" for August.

STORY OF A SNAKE.—The Lockport Journal
states that there lives in Mercer, Canada West, a woman
who has for four years past been afflicted with a singular
difficulty in her stomach. The complaint commenced about
four years since with a tickling and uneasy sensation about
the pit of the stomach. The sensation has continued to in-
crease in severity. A few months since it became the opinion
of the physicians that the increasing difficulty had been the
growth of a snake in the stomach. It has grown so largo
now that it distends the stomach as to produce s bunch upon
the outside as largo as a quart bowl. Upcn pressing this
bunch with the hand the reptile recoils and produces great
distress in the stomach. When fish or meat is being cooked
in the room, if the snake is not satisfied with food it rises
up in the throat, producing strangulation. When desiring
food, it manifests it by rising up in the throat. Physicians
can see no way iu which the snake can be retuovid without
certain death to the woman. She is about 35 years of age.