FOOTBALL INJURY STATISTICS.

The report on the clinical record of football injuries received by members of the University squad during the past four years, which is published this morning, is the first actual proof of any consequence we have had that the change in the football rules has led to a diminution in the number and extent of injuries. The spectator soon realized that he found more entertainment in witnessing a good exhibition of the open game with wide runs, passes and frequent kicks than in watching four hundred and fifty pounds or more of concentrated power forcing their way through one small hole from one end of the field to the other. The player welcomed the change and now such decisive statistics as these from the medical authorities complete the vindication of the new game.

According to these figures, the greatest number of injuries received in any one of the three years since the adoption of a more open game is less than one-third the number received in 1905, the last year of the old-style football. In 1905, the number of injuries per man on the squad during the whole season was 2.1 while last fall the average was 45. There is also a large decrease in the total number of days men have been away from College work on account of injuries and a corresponding decrease in the number of days absence from play.

Some of the diminution in these figures is not due, however, to the change in the rules alone. The men were better protected last fall than formerly and were required to wear their protections, and it was the policy of the season not to play a man in any way crippled or allow a man to continue playing to the point of exhaustion. These precautions combined with an improvement in the character of the game have eliminated a large proportion of the injuries, which have at times proved incriminating evidence against football.