Page:Boating - Woodgate - 1888.pdf/203

 Boils arc one of the most common afilictions. ‘They used to be seen more frequently in the writer's days than now. The modern recognition of the importance of a due proportion of vegetable food blended with the animal food has tended to re- duce the proportion of oarsmen annually laid up by this com- plaint. A man is not carnivorous purely, but omnivorous, like apig ora bear. If he gorges too much animal food meat, he disorders his blood, and his blood seeks to throw off its humours. Tf there is a sore anywhere on the frame at the time, the blood will select this as a safety valvc, and will raise a fester there, Tf there is no such existing safety valve, the blood soon broaches a volcano of its own, and has an unpleasant habit of selecting most inconvenient sites for these eruptions. Where there is most wear and tear going on to the cuticle is a likely spot for the volcano to open, and nature in this respect is prone to fayour the seat of honour more than any other portions of the frame. Next in fashion, perhaps, comes the neck ; the friction of a comforter when the neck is dripping with perspiration tends often to make the skin of the neck tender and to induce a boil to break out there. A blistered hand is not unlikely to be selected as the scene of outbreak, or a shoulder chafed by a wet jersey.

A crew should be under strict orders to report @// ailments, if only a Dlister, sasfand/y to the coach, It is better to leave no discretion in this matter to the oarsman, even at the risk of troubling the mentor with trifles. If a man is once al- lowed to decide for himself whether he will report some petty and incipient ailment, he is likely to try to hush it up lest it should militate against his coach’s selection of him; the effect of this is that mischief which might otherwise have been checked in the bud, is allowed to assume dangerous propor- tions for want of a stitch in time. An oarsman should be im- pressed that nothing is more likely to militate against his dream of being selected than disobedience to this or any other standing order. The smallest pimple should be shown forthwith to the coach, the slightest hoarseness or tendency to snuffic