SHUT YOUR MOTH AND SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 225, 23 September 1907, Page 3

SHUT YOUR MOTH AND SAVE YOUR LIFE!

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —During the course of my reading upon phonetics and subjects . akin I came across some excellent advice on breathing properly, and the matter is one of such very great importance to the whole community that I considered some of this advice would certainly, not be lost upon readers of The Express. Prof. Plumptre in his excellent." Lectures on Elocution " says: Nothing can be more hurtful to the pure quality of the voice and injurioxis to the larynx -and the lungs than the habit of gasping in the air by the open mouth. "Take this as a golden rule that the breath should, not merely when reading or speaking—though then I hold it indispensable—but at all times and under any circumstances, be taken into.the lungs only through the nostrils. I assure you most earnestly that if there be any tendency or weakness of the lungs or of the larynx, trachea or bronchial tubes, the observance of this rule is of vital importance to health; in some cases a matter almost of life or death. Believe me, that almost all the injury which clergymen and public speakers ■do themselves in the discharge of their duties in the church or on the

platform arises from this very common but most erroneous habit of pumping in the air through the open mouth." The late Rev. J. H. Howlett, a chaplain to her late Majesty, published an admirable little work on ■clerical elocution, suggesting always inhaling through the nostrils. The breath when drawn through the open mouth absorbs the saliva, renders the palate and fauces dry and clammy, and is injurious to the teeth. Mr George Catlin, the celebrated traveller amongst the North American Indians, says in his curious work, entitled, " Shut Your Mouth and Save Your Lif e ":—"Breathing through the mouth is injurious to the teeth. Among the brute creations that seldom open their mouths except for taking food and drink their teeth are protected from the air both day and night and seldom decay; but man, who is a talking and a laughing animal, exposing his teeth to the air a great portion of the day, and oftentimes during the whole of the night, is very often toothless at middle age. It is the suppression of saliva, with dryness of the mouth, and an unnatural currqnt of cold air across the teeth and gums during the hours of sleep, that produces malformations, toothache, neuralgia, with the premature decay and loss of the teeth which are so lamentably prevalent in the civilised world. The American Indians call the civilised races ' pale faces' and 'black mouths.' To un-

derstand the full force of these ex-

pressions it is necessary to live among savage races and then return to civilised life. A long familiarity with red faces and closed mouths explains to us the horror which a savage has of a ' pale face,' and his disgust with the expression of open and black mouths. I asked an Indian one day how he liked the white people. He replied, ' Well, white man—suppose— mouth shut, putty coot (pretty good), mouth open—no coot—me no like 'urn, not much.' Man is the most perfectly constructed of all animals, and consequently he can endure more; he can out-travel the horse, the dog, the ox, or any other animal; and he can fast longer. His natural life is said to be three score and ten years, whilst its real'average length in civilised communities is but half equal to that of the brutes, whose natural term is not one third as long. This enormous disproportion might be attributed to some natural deficiency In the construction of man, were it not that we find him in some phases ■of savage life enjoying an almost ■equal exemption from disease and premature death with the brute creation, leading us to the irresistible •conclusion that there is some lamentable fault yet overlooked in our sanitary economy. I learned from the •chiefs of a tribe of 20Uu on the Missouri that the death of an Indian child under the age of ten was a very - unusual occurrence, and from an ex-1 amination of some hundreds of bleached skulls found in their cemetery, I was forcibly struck with the almost incredibly small proportion of crania of children, and total absence of malformation of the beautiful sets j of teeth of all ages. From the bills of mortality we learn that in Lou-

don, and on the Continent, etc., on an average, one-half of the human race die before five years of age, and one-half of the remainder before the age of twenty-five. I have been stimulated to search among savage races for the cause of their exemption from disease and these frightful results. This cause I believe to be the neglect to secure the vital advantages to be derived from quiet and natural sleep, the great physician and restorer of mankind. Man's cares and the fatigues of the day become a cause of daily disease, for which quiet sleep is the cure; and the all-wise Creator has so constructed him that his breathing lungs support him through that sleep like a perfect machine, regulating the digestion of the stomach and the circulation of the blood, and carrying repose to every limb. For the protection and healthy working of this machine through the hours of repose man is furnished with nostrils intended for measuring and tempering the air that feeds this moving principle and fountain of life. I have seen a poor Indian woman in the wilderness pressing the lips of her child together as it falls asleep in its cradle in the open air, and I have seen tender mothers in civilised life covering the faces of their infants sleeping in overheated rooms and gasping for breath. There is no animal excepting man that sleeps with his mouth open, and with mankind I believe the habit, which is not natural, is generally confined to civilised communities, where he is nurtured amidst enervating luxuries and unnatural warmth. The physical formation of man affords proof that this modern custom of sleeping with open mouth is a habit against instinct, and that man was made like other animals, to sleep with his mouth shut, supplying the lungs with vital air through the nostrils, the natural channels. The North American Indians strictly adhere to Nature's law in this respect, and show the beneficial results in their manly forms, and exemption from mental and physical disease (strong drink has been the cause of their decadence if any). The savage infant, like the offspring of the brute, breathing the natural and wholesome air, generally from instinct closes its mouth during sleep. But when we turn to civilised life, with all its comforts, its luxuries, its science, and its medir cal skill, our pity is enlisted for the tender germs of humanity, brought forth and caressed in a smothered atmosphere which they can only breathe with their mouths wide open, contracting a habit which is to shorten their days with croup in infancy, or to turn their brains to idiotcy or lunacy, and their spines to curvatures; or in manhood their sleep to fatigue and the nightmare, and their lungs "to 'premature decay. Infants do not require heated air, and they had better sleep with their heads out of the window than under their mothers' arms. Middle-aged and old people require more warmth than children. Though the majority of civilised people are addicted to the habit of mouth-breathing few will admit it. They go to sleep and awake with their mouths shut, not knowing that the insidious enemy steals upon them in their sleep Avhile they are unconscious. Few people can be convinced that they snore, for the snoring is stopped when they awake, the moment that consciousness returns. And so with breathing through the mouth (which is generally the cause of snoring). Few persons will sleep 100 much for their health, provided they sleep in the right way instead of dropping the under jaw and drawing an overdraught of cold air directly on the lungs through the mouth, and this in the middle of the night when the air is coldest, and the lungs least able to bear the shock. Those who have suffered with weakness of the lungs or other diseases of the chest need no proof of this fact, and those who don't believe should take a candle in their hand and look at their friends asleep and snoring, with ' shut your eyes and open your mouth, and see what the devil will send you!"—the very pictures of distress, idiotcy and death. The mouth was made for the reception and mastication of food and other purposes, but the nostrils, with their delicate and fibrous lungs for purifying and warming the air in its passages, have been mysteriously constructed to stand guard over the lungs to measure and equalise the draughts of air. The atmosphere is nowhere pure enough for man's breathing until it has passed through this refining process. The air which enters the lungs by the nostrils is as different from that which enters by the mouth as distilled water is from that of a frogpond. Resolve at every moment of your waking hours (except when necessary to open them) to keep your lips and teeth firmly pressed together. This habit will prepare you to meet more calmly the usual excitements of life, and you will find the habit extend to your sleeping

hours and effectually, prevent the disgusting practice of sleeping with the mouth open. Keep your mouth shut vhen you read silently, when you write, when you listen, when in pain, when walking, running, riding,^ and by all means when angry. Every person will find an improvement in health from attention to this advice. If you charge your minds during the day sufficiently strong with any event which is to happen in the middle of the night you are sure to wake at or near the time, and if so, and your minds dwell with sufficient attention on the importance of this subject during the day, and you close your eyes* and teeth at the same time, carrying this determination into your sleep, the benefits you will feel will encourage you to persevere, until at last the grand and important object will be accomplished-. Every doctor i should advise his patients, and in every school, hospital and barracks the teachers and officers-should make their nightly and hourly rounds to put a stop to so unnatural, disgusting and dangerous a habit. There is an old proverb among the Indians to this effect: 'My son, if you would be wise, open first your eyes, your ears next, and last of all your mouth, that your words may be words of wisdom and that you give no advantage to the adversary.' I have seen thousands of Indian women giving the breast to their infants, and never knew one omit to close the infant's mouth after withdrawing the nipple. Our infants don't have this done to them, and are thus taught to sleep with their mouths open. This habit is one cause of stuttering. During my travels among the Indians I never met or heard of a stuttering Indian. Their lips and teeth are habitually and firmly closed, their articulation prompt, and their words clearly spoken. If I had millions to give to do the best charity I could with, I would invest it in four millions of little books containing this advice, and bequeath them to the mothers of the poor and rich in all countries." The infant mortality in this Dominion and the number of cases of croup, diphtheria, and influenza amongst us at present compels me to draw attention to the foregoing facts, many of which I believe are well-known to the medical fraternity. „ / WALTER H. MARPLE. Dumboath Street. Sept 20th.