The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-07-10 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

BATHING ACCIDENTS.  Tax harvest field of death is one to which addi tions are made in numerous and diverse ways The storms which sweep the surface of the sea, and pursue their destructive career far in upon the land, the railway collision, the plague, the pestilence, and the famine, the battle, the murder, and the sudden death, have allies in varions directiong. The number of persons killed and maimed by accidents in the streets of London in the course of twelve months is equal to the population of many a little Parliamentary borough. Again, 3'ooo lives, if not more, are lost annually in the rivers, canals. and lakes of England, Scotland, and Ireland through boating and bathing accidents. In each succeeding summer there is a renewed record of mortality, and during the holiday season scarcely a day passes in which the newspapers do not contain reports of one or more fatal disasters. Yet the lessons so frequently given appear to be unheeded; and it may be admitted that there is something singularly fascinating and attractiv, in the sight of a cool stream on a hot summer day. Still there cannot be the slightest doubt that a wider diffusion of easily-acquired information, and the exercise of reasonable precautions would lead to a considerable decrease in the number of deaths by drowning on our shores. For many years the National Lifeboat Institution has been actively circulating instructions for the restoration of the apparently drowne,l. In very many cases practical effect has been given to their advice, the proper means for resuscitation have been adopted, and carried on with patience and perseverance until success has crowned the efforts which have been made. Want of knowledge as to the method of procedure in cases of supposed death by drowning has led to the loss of many a Useful life; and much advantage would be derived from the more general circulation of the paper on this ERIN .!ct which has been issued by the Lifeboat Institution. Boating accidents, while in too many cases contributing the same fatal result as those which arise from incautious bathing aro, there is too much reason to fear in the majority of cases, to be attributed either to culpablQ carelessness or to gross and wilful neglect. The owners of small craft at oar watering places are generally ready to hire their boats to all corners, v.ithout instituting an adEquate inquiry as to the capacity of the hirers to manage the vessels with which they are temporarily eutru3ted. Thon4htless school boys, to whom the spectacle of salt water is rate and uncommon, are permitted to proceed seawards,although the probabilities seem to inclic tte a disastrous termination to the voyage. Probably, lviwever, the greater proportion of the deaths by drowning which annua.lly occur in the three kingdoms may be directly attributed to the neglect of the art of swimming This has often appeared inexplicable in a maratime people, which has so large a proportion of the population employed upon the water. It would be accountable in a vast inland country like Germany ; but 1 it is not easly explained in Great Britair. Few acquirments could be more useful, or more eastiy learned ; yet swimming does not appear to be a nicessary part of the education of our boys and girls. Amongst the many attempts which have been made to encourage this valuable acquisition, there has been nothing more likely to prove of practical value than the efforts made during recent years to teacli swimming iu schools. There are now many institutions in England and Scotland where instruction in swimming forms part of the educational course, and where the boys have been so trained as to be almost as much at home in the water as on shore. If the managers of educational establishments will see that the youths under their charge are as carefully instructed in swimming as they are in their accomplishments, and if Corporations will act wisely and well in the provision of swimming baths for the populations under their charge it may be expected at no distant date that a large decrease in the annual returns of deaths from drowning will be witnessed. Swimming matches and feats of endurance in the water are always popular, and never fail to attract numerous assemblies, a clear indication of the interest which is taken in such competitions, and which would_be increased if more incourage• merit were given to the ert of swimming in early life.