The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-09-19 00:00:00

The lane

of relaxation, and inaptitude to muscular exer-
.re all relieved, or dissipated, by the cool bath,
likewise restores the appetite. To produce these
to be taken frequently, not to be conti-
- shivering follows that occasioned by
the first immersion, and the bather should observe a
2r he has dressed, to prevent the oc-
we of the phenomena of reaction. It likewise
rs the skin less impressionable, and hardens it
st atmospherical vicissitudes. It is proper for all
1--ni the tamperature of the water produces

effects it ought
nued till a second

state of

repose aft(

disagreeable sensation, and who c

)enence oppres-
,nd adults take

with advar

On t&

infants, those

in whom the

)se liable to rheumatic pains,
Ise of the warm bath instead.

never to be taken during the active stage of a
The exercise of swim-

such as perspiration

g is taken in this bath, and operates beneficially,

from the small loss to the economy occasioned by the
density of the medium in which the swimmer is im-
mersed, and the sedative, or assuaging influences of the

water on the nervous system

supplementary observations

complete without a remark Cu: two on the swimming
the business, and its mode of effecting the ob-
exercise of the muscular system; and we wind
prolonged quotations from the valuable work of
Vavis:

" Natation, or swimming, is an exercise that solicits
the efforts of nearly the whole muscular system, in one
or other of its modes of execution. The alternate ab-
Ind adduction and flexion, of
call forth all the muscles of
the muscles of the
so, are solicited

nd lower Hint

arts to vigorous contraction

for part of the neck, al,
tilit to raise the hEI
Jim, i" exercises on (

we the anr-
Ily or back.
re kept in full play to
respiration, to keep its cavity well
to maintain the buoyancy of this

And, agai

of the chest

a fixedness to its sides,

ng from them, and proceeding to
greater power in the motion of

these limbs. • • Perhaps there is no more beautiful
exemplification of the influence of the muscular sense,'
especially to those who can recollect the precise feelings
they experienced on first attaining the art of swimming,
:nsation that, in some cases at least,
he frame when the power of adjust-
ts and movements, so as to preserve the body

y pervad

near the surface of the water, is acquired.
htful feelina, and the

s delig

'lenient is in

scular control

essential portion of the education of the
and in man seems to require to be learnt

It is an exercise only suited to certain constitutions,
Are(' with considerable

general

at can be benefitted by it : yet in proper sub-
eis no exercise more truly invigorating. Ar-

jects th

The same Roman arm

That rose victorious o'er the conquered earth

First learned, while tender, to subdue the wave

1 those of nervous and irritable tempe-

be an accumulation of

;es from it by the
awards the muscular

ce of the exercise that

•elaxed clan;

.ich always follows immersion;

hem as to. render bathing

as they offer the most allu-

rcise of swimming, present at
index to its beneficial employ-

certain precautions
rincipal of

tached to the

hich consist in

with cotton wool, dipped in oil ; in
is of the limbs to prevent cramps,
!quence of fatigue ; and in avoiding
perspiration, and, as in almost every

:e, during digestion." (P. 398.)
after perusing the following remarks,
srver of a landscape stretched out be-
to something more like the pleasure
ist contemplates the beautiful por-

--- -
ainting soon learns that the lines

bject.., do

be again effticed

'or they only mark

Place where

Much may be con

'eadth or thickness an

lighter and deeper

ebiaro-oseuro is not so simple as,

Durce of ligh

hough this be true;

light becomes a

Float on your back immediately,

scape, it is seen that

wholes are'comparatively
trongly marked, and that

sily distinguish-
, hut farther off

its and shadows melt into

illumination altoge-

t sees only an

;he quan-

nt of air is
called Blue
same name
.e not really

By holding in a full inspiration the body " naturally
floats, with a bulk of about half the head above the water,
having no more tendency to sink than a log of fir. That
the person may live and breathe, then, it is only neces-
sary to exert volition, so as to render the face the part
which remains uppermost."—Vol. I. EL. Phys. p. 290.
We condense these remarks which we would fain en-
large upon fully, into the three following golden cautions.
If you are no swimmer, and are in danger of drowning,
as you think, under any circumstances—yeu are safe, if
ding of a pie-
vou mind to
to all such sources, and to the

Keep your chest full of air-Land keep your hands in
the water.
Do not plunge or struggle.

Thus your race will be always out of the water, and
you can breathe as ordinary. Never let your mind get
flurried, for you are safe if you are collected, and doing
the easiest thing in the world—floating, as we say.

A Hint for those who can swim about saving those who
cannot swim from drowning.—A swimmer who may at-

he wa

by bringing him to shore, must avoid getting within
such struggling person's reach, or he will in all proba-
bility lose his own life in the attempt rashly to save that
of another. Let him remember, then, to avoid the
death-grasp, as it is called, of the drowning ; for it can
seldom be quitted when once fastened, and,both go down

inevitably f The way is, to swim round till their plung-
ing slackens, and they rise to the surface of the water
Denerally for the last time, when you must go behind

Physique et de Meteorologie. 3rd Edit. Vol. I

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

them— never before them; seize either the back of the
neck, or even a lock of the back hair, particularly it long
hair, will be quite sufficient to hold them, and to urge
them before you to shore—holding them by one hand,
and swimming with the other. (Parties should practise
swimming with either hand alone, and they will be
more fitted, having tested their own resources this way,
to rely upon their ability for any attempt to rescue others.)
Sometimes the foot can be readiest seized : this will do,
though not so well. Always keep clear of their arms
and hands, with one exception perhaps—the back of their
arm, or grasping the shoulders round and under the arm-
pit from behind. They must be made your prisoner in
one of these ways, which are the chief, or else you
may be made, however unintentionally, theirs, which,
as we have said, is fatal to both ; the reverse being a
happy success in your object. Alas ! Ili,w many noble
endeavours, on the part even of good swimmers, are
worse than thrown away, by not attending to this—how
often does there result a double loss of life, deepening
into horror the earlier part of the catastrophe—as our
newspaper records show almost day by day. A per-
son had better not jump in to help, under the prompt-
ings of a noble anxiety, unless he can with presence of
mind put these precautions into practice. If in his praise-
worthy efforts to save the struggler, or the lifeless body,
from a " watery grave," he finds his own strength fail-
ing, and the hope he bravely cherished impossible to
realise; then he must consign his prisoner to his fate,
and save his own life, however distressing to desert
a drowning fellow-creature. This duty to himself he
cannot discharge if he have allowed himself to become im-
prisoned in the drowning man's death-grasp : for though
magnanimous courage may call him to make an attempt
at rescuing a fellow-creature from fatal danger, and none
would keep this in more distinct view than the writer, as a
moral obligation ; yet it is no less true that an attempt so
to do without the probability of accomplishing it through
adequate and properly-directed means, is, however amia-
ble a trait of enthusiastic feeling for another's jeopardy,
condemned as rash by prudence, as an infringement of or-
ganic and inorganic laws, amounting to a temptation of
Providence, though in the loveliest garb rash profligacy
of your own existence can be found to wear ! Yet it is a
mistaken building of a tower without having counted the
cost,' the prosecution of which can only be left off by doing
as we have said, ere the weight of its falling mass and
scaffold crushes such builder under its destruc-
tive ruins. Coolness is never more emphatically
the handmaiden of courage than here ; and let
us engrave these rules by another word- begin-.
ning with the letter C, that is—Caution; like the Irish-
man taking prisoners— be always surrounding them—(a
push now ;Ind then will be all needed often). Courage
to attempt their rescue ; coolness to apply knowledge ;
caution to crown with success a heroism well begun. If
but one life more were rescued through our suggestions,
this book may be, " like bread cast upon the waters,"
found after many days—many years it may be—useful
for once, and the author will be immeasurably repaid.

" What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to sleep, and feed ; a beast, no more.
Sure. He that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability, and godlike reason,
To lust in us, unused."
SIIAKSPZARE.

" Idleness is the badge of gentry, the• bane of body and mind,
the nurse of naughtiness, the stepmother of discipline, the chief
author of all mischief, one of the seven deadly sins, the cushion
upon which the devil chiefly reposes. and' a great cause not only
of melancholy, but of many other diseases- ; for the mind is na.
turally active, and if it be not occupied about some honest bu-
siness, it rushes into mischief. or sinks inteimelaiachol) ."

BFIRTON,

Who says, the wan autumnal sun
Beams with too faint a smile
To light np Nature's face again,
And, though the year be on the wane;
With thoughts of Spring the heart beguile
Waft him. thou soft September breeze,
And gently lay him down
Within some circling woodland wall,
Where bright leaves. reddenning ere they fall,
Wave gaily o'er the waters brown.
" And let some graceful arch be there
With wreathed mullions proud,
With burni h'd itry for its screen,
And moss, that glows as fresh and green
As though beneath an April cloud."

" How divine
The liberty, for frail, for mortal man,
To roam at large among unpeopled glens,
And mountainous retirements, only trod
By devious footsteps f—Regions consecrate
To oldest time l —And reckless of the storm
That keeps the raven quiet in his nest,
Be as a presence or a motion—one
Among the many there."

EA B-LZ,

WORDSWO /WIC'

TO THE SET.
" Far from the rustlings of the poplar bough,
Which o'er my opening life wild music made,
Far from the green hills with their heathery glow
And flashing streams whereby my childhood play'd ;
In the dim city, 'midst the sounding flow
Of restless life, to thee in love I turn,
0, thou rich sky? and from thy splendours learn
How song-birds come and part, flowers wane and blow,
With thee all shapes of glory find their home,
And thou bast taught me well, majestic dome !
By stars, by sunsets, by soft clouds which rove,
Thy blue expanse. or sleep in silvery rest,
That nature's God hath left no spot unbless'd.
-rra6sa avuu. 01 MAUI), 101 cy e us MJVC.

MRS. HIIMANS