DESClllPTlON OF A DliAG. , 273 



III. 



Description of a Drag for raising the Bodies of Persons who 

 havesimk under Water. By Dr. Cog an, of Bath *. 



SIR, 



ROM the Reports of the Royal Humane Society for the Premium for x 

 year IS05, I learn, that a premium is offered hy the Society '^'^^2' 

 instituted in London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manu- 

 factures, &c. " To the person who shall invent and produce 

 to the Society a cheap and portable drag, or other machine, 

 superior to those now in use, for the purpose of taking up in 

 the best and most expeditious manner, and with the least in- 

 jury to, the bodies of persons who shall have sunk under 

 water:" and accordingly I beg leave to submit to the inspec- 

 tion of the Society tw^o models. 



I have long. Sir, been discontented with the construction AccDunt of the 

 of the drags which have hitherto been in use, both in this and Hoflind'^'Vc 

 in other countries. Those used in Holland are not more than 

 three or four inches in diameter, with very long and sharp 

 points. They cannot therefore be properly applied to a naked 

 body; and were not the Dutch sailors and boatmen, who are 

 most exposed to danger, very thickly clad, they might be pro- 

 ductive of mischief. 1 attempted, when resident in that 

 country, to make some improvements, by turning the points 

 obliquely inwards, so as to catch the clothes without pene- 

 trating deep into the body ; but still these were only appli- 

 cable in cases where the subject fell into the water in his 

 clothes. The drag which is now used in London is, in many- 

 respects, exceptionable; it is clumsy and dangerous. 



The design of establishing a Humane Society at Bath, in- History ani 

 duced me to reconsider the subject with more attention; and 

 the result has been the construction of two drags, according to 



* For which the Society of Arts gave the Gold Medal, 1S06. 

 Vol. XVL— April, 18»7. Z the 



