Alligators, hippopotami and petrels all have muscle valves which close their nostrils when they enter water. Seals and polar bears can also pull in their ears. But man is "a terrestrial being," with no "musculature for closing the nostrils, and keeping water from the nasal cavities and their appurtenances." Thus wrote Dr. Hermon Marshall Taylor of Jacksonville, Fla. in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week, agitating against humans participating in that No. 1 Florida pastime: swimming. Contrary to popular belief, he said, not contaminated water but plain swimming, even...
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