The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-08-10
BatherS, Cramp.

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 probable
that many deaths from drowning IN
the bathing season might be prevented.
Cramp is a pa nful and tonic muscular
spasm. 1t may occur in any part of
the body, but it is especially apt to oc.
cur in the lower eXtremities, and, in
its milder forms, it is limited to
single muscle. Pain is severe, and the
contracted muscles are hard and ex-
quisitely tender. In a few minutes
the spasm and pain cease, leaving
local sensation OF fatigue and soreness
When cramp affects only one extremity,
no swimmer or bather, endowed with
average presence of mind, need drown,
but, when cramp seizes the whole of
the voluntary muscular system, as it
probably does in the worst cases, moth.
ing, in the absence of prompt and eff.
cient extrane us assistance, can save
the individual 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 &C.
enable US to recognize the chief cond.,
tions of their causation. These condi.
tons are peculiar insusceptibility OF
idiosyncrasy; the shock of cold applied
to the general surface of the boly; pro-
Lon 10
and sudden muscular eXertion, espe-
cally in the direction of the extension
of the extremties. There can be no
doubt about liability to mus
cular cramp being an in
dividual popularity. The dis
or, er is espec ly apt to arise in per-
sons of irritable temperament. While
cramp has been met W tn in all ages,
sexes, temperaments and climates, it
has been observed that it occurs far
more frequently in warm climates than
in cold, and chiefly in the hotte,t of
warm climates, and that persons of
middle ;lge suffer most from the affec-
ton, and men more SO than women,
and the robust and vigorous more so
than the weakly. Neither can there be
any doubt that the shock of cold ap-
piled TO the surface of the body, es-
pecially when the body is unduly
heated, is the commonest determining
cause of the worst and most extensive
form of bathers' cramp. On this fact
is founded the common prejudice
against bath 'ng when the body is much
heated. Many fatal cases have illus
trated this point. Only few days ago.
robust soldier, who was an expert
swimmer, rowed in boat, upon sui
try evening, to d ep pol; here, with
his body glowing from muscular exer-
ton. he plunged into the water with
the intention of taking refreshing
bath. when he was Immediately seized
with general muscular cramp, so that
the poor fellow was at once drowned.
That mere prolongation of muscular
exertion, as in continued swimming,
and that forcible and sudden exertion,
part cularly in the ext nsion of the ex-
tremities, as in swimming, with very
vigorous and rapid strokes, are, respect
lively, efficient and frequent and de-
termining causes of cramp, are famil-
idl experiences W o"Tiy SWlhllneT.
These muscular conditions, however,
usually give rise only to the slighter
and more localized forms of cramp.
Serious cramp is aperil which menaces
most persons with highly developed
muscles. Its most powerful and most
avoidable cause is the sudden immer-
sion of the body. when its surface is
highly heated, in water of a relatively
low experimentation Medical
Journal.
Ernnnnnt and constant aduartisinn