The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1888-09-14
THE SWIM CRAMP.


From the German Correspondent Translated
by G. &. O.
In these summer days when the bathing
season Is at its height we find frequent &C.
counts of death by drowning where skillful
swimmers are said to have sunk before help
could be rendered, seized, it is said, by cramps.
Such cases have spread the beieflhat neither
strength or skill can save the swimmer from
sudden death in case he is seized by cramps.
Now if one searches through these notices,
a singular circumstance strikes him, namely,
that the drowning man never utters cry for
help. His brief struggles, if indeed such &C.
cur, and are seen by those on shore, are re-
garded as water play and he sinks to rise no
more, and all this without his ever uttering q
cry for help.
In explanation of this surprising circum-
stance lately given by certain Dr. Roche,
residing on the coast of Maine, careful ex-
animation of several persons supposed to
have been drowned from this cause impress
ed him that cramps were not the cause of
death. In the corpse examined by him
whether the bodies had been longer or
shorter time beneath the water, he found not
the slightest indication of cramp. The doctor
made thorough examination in three cases,
where swimmers had sunk without uttering
cry, and where there was not the slightest
suspicion of self destruction, and no indica-
tons oftheir having been attacked by invol-
untary muscular contractions could be found.
DR.. Roche told of an accident In which he
himself narrowly escaped death by drowning,
and which explains, as he Thinks all the cir
cumstances of these cases.
He had chosen little cove for bathing
place, in which the water was about six feet
deep In this was dam of logs and earth.
The top Of the dam was about two feet above
the water, and offered good landing place.
One day the doctor was standing in the
water Just upon his toe tips, so that the
water Just reached his mouth, and about
eighteen feet from the shore. While he SO
stood little wave that boy made, who was
fishing ON the shore opposite him, struck
his upper lips, and instantly and without
previous apprehension of danger, the doctor
felt himself speeches. and struggling for his
life He describes his experience in the fol-
lowing words
For some time an irresolution and pain
full uncertainty overcame me, whether the
shore or the dam lay nearest met then l
strove with desperate strength for the dam.
| succeeded after extreme effort to draw my
sci partly upon it, aud then fell unconscious
with my face to the earth, not knowing
that my feet still hung in the water lcould
not utter the least sound, my lungs and
throat organs utterly refused to act. My
lungs seemed to me an iron cask with an
iron bottom. l could move all my limbs but
they seemed of crushing weight. The sensa-
ton possessed me that they were of immense
size and on account of their weight and size
impossible to move. My body and heart
seemed to me equally enormous while the
latter beat in rapid throes. My first impulse,
after the wave struck me, was to give up all
effort for life and sink motionless and will.
I halt WI vfntn.
utes interviewed before had recovered myself
sufficiently to walk and speak, four minutes
in reaching the shore, four minutes before
could make the slightest noise, and four
minutes more before l could utter
word that another could under
stand. To Judge from the condition in which
reached the dam think that skillful swim.
mer might have swum from ~ to 4O feet be.
fore, through failure of strength and con.
seriousness, he would have sunk. In the first
instant, lifted my hands out OF water to-
wards my face and neck with an instructive
help-seeking movement, as children are seen
to do when struggling in Group The boy
told me that did not at once swim for The
dam, but struck my arms about in the water
and made great splashing, which he took for
water gymnastics"
The explanation which the doctor made of
these circumstances and which till now have
led to a deuson is this The lighter por'
ton or foam of the little ripple which struck
his upper lip was drawn in through the
nostriis with the breath, and entering the
throat passed into the wind pipe, and the con-
sequence was the sudden stoppage of the
breathing apparatus, as when a piece of
bread or any other solid body enters the
Sunday throat" as the children say.
Such an accident, even under favorable
circumstances, is not without risk, but dread
fully dangerous to man alone in the water.
If the water enters the wind pipe with the
beginning of an inspiration, when the lungs
are empty of air, the swimmer will sink in
stantly, but if this happens towards the close
or during the inspiration, the struggle will
be heightened, and If at the very end OF the
inspiration the swimmer may sustain him
self above water for some time, but the mo-
ment of unconsciousness will come when he.
will sink. 3d. should one observe swim
mer or bather making unusual motions
with the arm there must be no delay in hast
ening to his aid, even though he does not call
for help.
O1El1DH CrLaoL EuUstOn