October 15, 1859.] HOW TO LEARN TO SWIM. 327
“They be rank pison!” he informed us in a loud
voice, from a distance.
The connection between these productions and the reptiles with which they are nominally asso- ciated is quite imaginary. I have never yet seen a toad either seated on a toadstool, or crouching under one. No doubt toadstools have derived that name from peculiarities of conformation and colour, which give them an aspect of toadiness. Fat, bloated, mottled, many of them may seem the vegetable analogues of the toad. That reptile being accounted “ugly and venomous,” their similarity to it in look has procured for them a corresponding character. But whereas the “pre- cious jewel ” which the toad has been credited with wearing in his head, is nothing more than a brilliant eye — “all my eye,” as the toad might be excused for saying — sundry toadstools possess the really valuable property of serving for nutriment, as witness the undersigned. Instead of being only fit to be ingredients in a hell-broth, they are ex- ceedingly good things to enter into the composi- tion of a hash.
Are there any general rules by which whole- some toadstools can be distinguished from such as are poisonous? One only that can in any measure be relied on, — a pleasant taste is a pretty safe criterion of their wholesomeness. The con- verse of this, however, does not hold quite good: some eatable sorts are rather hot to the palate when uncooked. The proof of the toadstool is in the eating — cautiously tried; small quantities only being at first ventured on, and heat in the throat, or any other unpleasant sensation in that, or the continuous thoroughfare, being taken as a warning. Add to this, that the experiment should not be hazarded at all till the fungus in question has been carefully identified by reference to minute descriptions and accurate plates. By these precautions the explorer will be enabled to walk
safely on the enchanted ground which engenders toadstools, and to banquet on its produce with im- punity and satisfaction. P. L.
HOW TO LEARN TO SWIM.
( The few remarks lately made in this publication on Swimming as a desirable art and exercise for women, have occasioned inquiries as to how women can learn to swim. What means exist, it is asked, for enabling girls to use their limbs in the water?
In such a case as this the supply of a want must
follow, and not precede, the demand. When ! parents show a desire that their daughters should swim, instructors and means will turn up; just as
a dancing-school is sure to be instituted in any
rising town, when the need of one has been talked of for a little while. First, then, let parents and daughters make known their opinion and wish on the subject; and there will soon be as many swimming-schools in England as there are in France.
In the “Englishwoman’s Journal ” of August; 1858, p. 413, there is an account of the opening of a metropolitan swimming-bath for ladies in the Marylebone Road, where instruction is said to be given “by an efficient female teacher.” It seems to me that when we have got “an efficient female teacher, ” we have got all we want for the basis of a system of any extent. There are multitudes of young women on the look out for means of honest subsistence. Why should not the teacher at the St. Marylebone Public Baths instruct ten, or twelve, or twenty strong and willing girls to swim, in order to teach others to swim? The fathers and mothers in any town or village who wish their children to learn should inquire at these baths; and, if there is as yet no supply, should cause a proper young person to be instructed.
Wherever there are good and spacious baths for women there seem to be some women who can swim. At Liverpool, where the baths are admira- ble, there are several ladies who are perfectly at home in the water. If each of these ladies would instruct some promising girl or girls from the schools in their art, in order to make it their occu- pation, no doubt the next generation of women in Liverpool would be swimmers in much greater proportion than the present. Let other towns and any country neighbourhood where there is good water, provide baths of sufficient size — either by mooring bathing-houses in the streams, or by making shallow docks on shore, and teachers will presently offer. If not, it would be no great ex- pense for the combined parentage of a neighbour- hood to bring over a swimming mistress from France. There are probably several at the bathing places along the coast; and there are certainly plenty at Paris, if one may judge by the accom- plishment of Frenchwomen in the art.
What prevents fathers teaching their own chil- dren in infancy? The earliest time is the best for learning an art which is never difficult. In most countries in the world — actually over the greater part of the inhabited globe — the children swim as soon as they walk, if not earlier. In Egypt, and throughout all Mongolian countries, and among the indigenous races of America, and throughout the negro lands of Africa, and in Polynesia, the human being is amphibious. There children of both sexes can spend the whole day in the water, and explore it at pleasure. Any Nile voyager who has passed the first cataract can tell how it is among the Berber infants, and indeed along the whole course of the Nile. English children would do the thing just as well if they were put in the way of it. Their mothers are the proper persons to put them in the way of it: and, as the mothers are at present unqualified, the fathers should undertake it. In another generation or two they would be saved the trouble, we may hope, by the mothers being then better qualified. Meantime, it will gratify, and perhaps surprise any parent to see how immediately a little child takes to the art, which really seems like nature to it, if begun sufficiently early.
Wherever public baths are established, it is no doubt practicable to make an arrangement, either to open the swimming-bath on certain fixed days to women, or for giving women a bath to them- selves. The whole thing rests with women, or with parents of families. Whenever there is a real demand there will be no want of areas contain- ing five feet of water. The generation which has multiplied baths and washhouses and drinking-
fountains, can enable children to swim.