Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-08-30
BATHERS' CRAMP.
q Danger to which All Persons Are
Exposed i'm Summer.


Some recent bathing fatalities have
again drawn attention to the subject
of bathers' cramp. If the nature and
causes of this dangerous affection
were more generally known, it is prob
able that many deaths from drowning
in the bathing season might be pre-
vented. Cramp is apainful and tonic
muscular spasm 1t may occur in
any part of the body, but is especially
apt to occur III the lower extrelAities,
and. in its milder forms, it is limited
to single muscle. The pain is severe
and the contracted muscles are hard
and exquisitely tender. In few min
utes the spasm and pain cease, leaving
a local sensation of fatigue and sore
ness. When cramp affects only one
extremity, no swimmer or bather, en-
dowed with average presence of mind,
need drown; but when cramp seizes
the whole of the voluntary system, as
it probably does in the worst cases,
nothing, IN the absence of prompt and
efficient extraneous assistance, can
save the victim from drowning. AL
though the intimate nature of muscu
lar cramps, and the precise mode in
which they are established, are still
unknown, experience has furnished
us with sufficient data on the subject
TO enable us torecOgnize the chief con-
dition of their causation. These con-
ditions are a peculiar insusceptibility
or idiosyncrasy the shock Of cold APP
piled to the general surface of the
body; prolonged muscular exertion;
and forcible and sudden muscular eX-
ertion, especially in the direction of
the extension of the eXtremities There
can be no doubt about a liability to
muscular cramp being an Individual
popularity. The disorder is especial
ly apt to arise in persons of irritable
temperament. Whilecram has been
met with in all ages, sexes, tempera-
ments and climates, it has been OBJ
served that it occurs far more frequent
ly in warm climates than in cold, and
chiefly in the hottest of warm climates
and that persons of middle age suffer
more SO than women, and robust and
vigorous more so than the weakly.
Neither can there be any doubt that
the shock of cold applied to the sur
face of the body, especially when the
body is unduly heated, is the COM
mOnest determining cramp. On thi
fact is founded the common prejudice
against bathing when the body is
much heated Many fatal cases have
illustrated this point. Only a few
days ago, robust soldier, who was
an expert swimmer, rowed in a boat,
upon a sultry evening, to deep pool;
here, with his body glowing with mus
cular exertion, he plunged into the
water with the intention of taking a
refreshing bath, when he was imme-
diately seized with general muscular
cramp, SO that the poor fellow was at
once drowned. That mere prolOnga-
ton of muscular exertiOn, as in con
tinued swimming, and that forcible
and sudden exertiOn, particularly in
the extension of the extremities, as in
swimming with very vigorous and
rapid strokes are, respectively, effici-
ent and frequent determining causes
of cramp, are familiar experiences to
every swimmer. These muscular con-
ditiOns, however, usually give rise
only to the slighter and more localized
forms of cramp. Serious cramps a
peril hichmenaces most persons with
highly developed muscles. Its most
powerful and most avoidable cause is
the sudden immersion of the body,
when its surface is highly heated, n
water of a relatively low temperature