Page:Boating - Woodgate - 1888.pdf/188

 skeleton skulls of quondam combatant Persians and Egyptians could be known apart on the battle-field, because the turban- clad heads of Persians produced soft skulls which crumbled to a kick, while the sun-baked heads of Egyptians were hard as bricks), we do not believe in this sort of acclimatisation. Ifmen have to be trained to row a midnight race, they would be best prepared for it by working at their ordinary daylight hours, not by turning night into day for weeks beforehand, On the same principle it would seem to be a mistake to expose oarsmen in practice to excessive heat to which they have not been accustomed, solely because they are likely eventually to row their race under a similarsun. In really oppressive weather at Henley the writer and his crews used to dine about 2 p.m. as aforesaid, finish supper at g or 9.30, and go to bed two hours later. They rose proportionately later next day, taking a good nine hours in bed before they turned out. So far as their records read, those crews do not seem on the whole (o have suffered in condition by this system of training,

Many men are parched with thirst at night. The heat of the stomach, rather overladen with food, tends to this. The waste of the system has been abnormal during the day; the appetite, ie. instinct to replenish the waste, has also been abnormal, and yet the capacity of the stomach is only normal. Hence the stomach finds it hard work to keep pace with the demands upon it, Next morning thes2 men feel ‘coppered,’ as if they had drunk too much overnight, and yet it is needless to say they have not in any way exceeded the moderate scale of alcohol already propounded ahove as being customary.

The best preventive of this tendency to fevered mouths is a cup of ‘water grucl,’ or even a small slop-basin of it, the Jast thing before bedtime. It should not contain any milk ; millet seed and oatmeal grits are best.for its composition. The con- sumption of this light supper should be compulsory, whether it suits palates or not. The effect of it is very striking ; it seems to scothe and promote digestion, and to allay thirst more than three times its amount of water would do. Some few men