Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-03

nineties which necessitated a visit to the sea-
shore, where, after two swims, the cold disap-
peared as il by magic. There are. Of course,
many weak people whose chest organs are in
such condition that they should not venture to
swim; but am convinced that the neglect to
learn swimming in childhood and the absence
OF this emipently hygienic exercise are respon-
sible for many fabby hearts, weak lungs and
torpid minds.
AN AID IN MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT.
"Inaddition to being generally tonic and brac-
ing the effect of swimming, considered in itself,
is to develop the muscular system and to exert
q favorable influence on the great bodily func-
tons, as the digestion, nutrition, respiration,
circulation and excavation. No other exercise
with which / am familiar gets the heart and
lungs in better working order, and none is bet
ter for getting one in what sporting men call
salt water have run a measured mile on
beach with very little more embarrassment to
circulation and respiration than il had walked
the same distance. Aside from the physical
another advantage Of a high order accrues in
the way OF happy moral influences. Boxing,
sword play and several other manly pastimes
will do much to develop courage. prudence and
cleverness; but the cold-blooded quiet and
presence of mind which aid us to avoid danger
or to conquer it, or to lend ourselves to an act
Of devotion, are best cultivated by the exercise
OF swimming. What, for instance, is a more
brilliant and eommendable act of devotion than
that of dauntless swimmer, who, regardless
OF self, plunges overheard at the risk of his own
life to save fellow being from drowning?
ASA CURATIVE MEANS
swimming also comes in for praise. In this re-
spect it is superior in many conditions to the
so-called ''tent cure" to massage, electricity
or drugs, and may be employed with benefit in
scrofula, chlorosis, convalescence, insomnia
and many other nervous diseases, as chorea
fnrt he Lot 1oIx o,ollr
have known to be cured after course in the
swimming baths of Alameda, Cal, and my ex-
perience as a neurologist leads me to recon-
mend swimming as one of the best adjuvants
In the treatment OF nervous diseases.
THE SHARK MYTH.
''The danger to be apprehended from sharks
is more a Pigment of the mind than a reality.
/ have no personal knowledge OF shark bites,
although have done much swimming in such
infested places as the gulf of Mexico, the
harbor of Cadiz, the Azore Islands, Bermuda,
Tybee, the mid-Atlantic and other places where
these yoracious animals are reputed to gobble
up such small bait a man at single mouth
full For years have made it point to ques-
ton sailors and fishermen in various parts of
the world as to their actual anfpersonalknowl
edge of shark bites, and though the inquiry
has called forth some remarkable fish stories.
have met but two people with any personal
knowledge of the matter. Admiral Porter
tells me Of an instance in which he saw man
attacked; the other person, pilot at Bermuda,
knew of a man that had his hand bitten by a
shark just as he was pulling in hooked fish from
the water into his boat. Sharks often collect
| around the carcass of whale while it is being
"cut in, and men sometimes slip overheard
among them, yet after long residence in Nev
Bedford and a somewhat extended experience
with the Pacific arctic whaling feet, have
never met whaleman who could tell me of q
man that had been bitten. My friend, Mr.
lruxton Beale, Of Washington, a short time
| since, when passenger on the Pacific mail
showed his unbelief in shark stories by swim.
ming across the shark infested harbor OF
Acapulco, although warned by the captain OF
the ship that he would be eaten up before ht
got hundred yards away.
THE STORIES LACK CONFIRMATION.
Traditional accounts of the rapidity of sharks
are as extravagant as the records of some of the
old writer's who tell of dead sharks cast upon
the shores Of the Mediterranean of such size
that men walked into the mouth and down the
throat in order to inspect the stomach. Even
Rondelet in his History of Fishes speaks OF
these animals as having swallowed men in
entire suits Of armor. Documentary evidence
as to shark bites is also very scanty. During
the last fifty years soldiers by the tens Of thou.
sands have swan at Fort Monroe, Va, yet there
is no record OF one having been bitten by O
shark, nor have been able to ascertain that
any accident Of the kind has occurred at Malts
or Gibraltar. There does not appear to be a
record OF any one ever having been bitten by
shark off the British Isles. I have
been unable to ascertain that a single bite OF
of our War or Navy departments or those of the
Marine hospital. In book about the West
Indies Mr.. Charles Ives says it is singular that
so few facts are reported which indicate the
danger from Bahama sharks and that the
divers continue to be so numerous and bold
IIa hos hnov lNf h,,x s1axo -. Il =
Nassau shark has dined upon a negro, and the
| report in that case is not well authenticated
The New York Herald, few years ago, gave al
account of q boy who was bitten while swim
ming in East river and afterward died in Belle
vue hospital.
BUT FEW CASES IN MEDICAL LITERATURE.
medical literature has but few reports Of
shark bites After ten years diligent search
have found but seven references, the earliest
in the London Medical Gazette, 1928, and the
latest in the London Lancet, 1886. The bite
occurred in Australia, South Africa and India
The Hooghley and Ganges rivers are the worst
places in the world for sharks and alligators
A particular kind of shark, the Carcharras
Gangeticus, which is very fierce and bold
sometimes dashes among the crowds at the
bathing CHATS, and has been known to bite g
boy in two feet of water. All persons bitten a
these places generally die from the bite, fol
the reason that the shark, living on carrion
portions of which stick between the teeth
carries infection to others whom it may after
ward bite. The former habit of throwing the
dead in the river is supposed to account for the
boldness Of these particular sharks in attackinl
the human species.
THE DAMAGE IS SLIGHT.
"Even admitting the occasional accident o.
shark bites, the danger therefrom is almost in
fnitesimal compared with railway travel o,
even accidents from horses; and neither thii
unimportant drawback: nor any other that
have mentioned should have the least weight
in preventing the cultivation and spread of ar
accomplishment that everybody should counte
nance with view not to the renewal of the
legendary exploits Of Leander and Byron, blu,
as a step in that branch of social evolution
which better physical development and i'm.
proved health tend to promote"