Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/178

 backboard. Every child when it reaches eight years of age should be taught to swim. Look at the dreadful deaths that might be averted every year if the children were all able to swim. No doubt, before many years are past, it will be taught by the State, just as reading and writing are taught.

I would say a few words to those who may be induced to take up the teaching of swimming as a profession, through reading what I have written, about the management of their own health. First and foremost do not be induced, under any consideration, to take stimulants, unless, of course, in down right illness or collapse from cramp or something equally serious. Many people will tell you that you should take a little spirit, a spoonful of brandy to prevent you catching cold, &amp;c, &amp;c. If you value your own well being and mean to continue teaching swimming shun all sorts of spirits or alcohol in any form whatever. Take, instead, hot milk or milk and water, but the milk must be boiled. It is a wonderful stimulant and has not the effect of spirits in making one heavy afterwards. I have used nothing but the hot milk, and am convinced that to it I owe my freedom from colds and coughs all the time I have been teaching. Strange to say I have never had a severe cold since first beginning to teach swimming, and have frequently been in the bath as long as three hours at a time, and occasionally even longer, when having a late afternoon and then a night class beginning at seven o'clock. My practice is to drink half or three parts of a cup of hot milk before going into the water, then if the lesson is a long one about the same quantity in the middle of the lesson, and again directly upon coming out. If you have symptoms of cold or cough, or are liable to them, rub the chest and the back, between the shoulders, with Dugong or cod liver oil; and for about three weeks before beginning to teach take the oil internally, beginning with a few drops three times a day and gradually increasing it till you can take a tablespoonful three times per day. Never go to a long lesson on an empty stomach, or on a very full one either. Pupils must follow these rules also, and the teacher should advise mothers to either let them bring a little hot milk in a bottle or give it them before starting. It is my practice to insist upon frail delicate pupils, or those who shiver much, bringing milk with them. All young children whether or not should have a little bottle of boiled milk with them and a biscuit or piece of bread to eat while dressing. Children under eight years of age should have either an older girl or a nurse with them, to rub them well directly they go out of the bath, and also to see that they do not stand about in their wet dresses. More colds are caught from this last, viz., standing in wet gowns than from anything else. A child can stay in the bath for an hour or more (so long as she keeps moving)