Professor J. Joly sent to the Times of Friday week
a most interesting letter on some experiments he and Professor H.' IL Dixon have conducted on the advantages and disadvantages of swimming in clothes—a subject which may be of importance to any one who travels by sea in these days. The popular notion is that clothes drag a swimmer down, but the maximum downward drag of an ordinary sailor's clothes in sea-water was shown to be only four ounces. This was after all air had been • expelled from the clothes. Is practice the drag for a con- siderable time would be less. At first there would even be at sustaining force from the clothes. Of course, for a short and sharp burst of swimming clothes would obviously, be a great impediment. Tho most important result of the experinients, however, was to show that a clothed person in the sea loses warmth very much less rapidly than an unclothed person. The explanation is that fabrics placed against the skin stopt the circulation and prevent the body-warmth from being carried off by the water. With a great amount of clothing it might. be possible to keep fairly warm even in very cold water. The moral is : Keep on your clothes, and if you have a lifebelt or life-saving waistcoat keep on plenty of them. •
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