YAWNS, SNORES, SNEEZES

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16787, 14 May 1926, Page 6

YAWNS, SNORES, SNEEZES

AND QUEER CONSEQUENCES FROM THEM.

After twent\yseven years of research, a scientist has claimed to have discovered a certain cure lor snoring. This involves enlarging the air passages from the nose to the throat which, he says, are usually too small, especially in the case of towndwellers.

The cure would be welcomed by a large number of people whose habit of snoring is not only a trial to other people, but often leads the snorer into trouble. At a workhouse, not so long ago, a man inmate caused a great disturbance amongst his fellows because of his thunderous snoring at night, which kept everybody but himself awake.

A woman in the E;.st End of London was such a loud snorer that on one occasion a, crowd gathered outside her house at night, wondering what the noise was that was coming through the open window. ■ Snoring proved the undoing of ono of a couple of convicts who lately escaped from gaol. After getting away from prison, he boarded a coal train and dug himself in under the coal. Later, he transferred himself to a fodder van, was locked in by the guard and eventually fell into a deep sleep. His snores were so loud that they were heard by a porter, who raised the alarm and helped in the prisoner’s capture. In at least one instance, excessive snoring broke up a marriage. The snorer was an old retired sailor who married an elderly spinster with whom he set up house in a small cottage. But the sailor’s snores were so terribly loud that there was no sleep possible for hi s wife, and the noise penetrated : to every corner of the cottage. ! .To make matters worse, the old chap indignantly denied that he snored, and so many quarrels sprang up on the 'subject that the couple parted within a few weeks of their wedding. That is the annoying thing about so many people who snore. Naturally, they cannot head tlieir own performance, and usually they deny the accusation with indignation. At least one lady got over the dif Acuity of convincing her snoring husband of his offence. She took a gramophone record of his performance and played it to him next day to prove the sort of noise he was in the habit of making ? The writer once met a man of an inventive turn of mind who proposed an ingenious device for checking snorers and awakening them every time they did it. It consisted of a diaphragm like a telphone ear-piece which was to be hung close to tli-e snorer’s face. When the sleeper started snoring, the vibration would agitate the diaphragm which would set an electric bell ringing, so the inventor claimed. However, the inventor was killed shortly after the writer met him, so the idea is presented free to any one who cares to elaborate itYawning, of course, is not so troublesome to onlookers as snoring', but it can be dangerous to the one who yawns, /a Yorkshire girl found out ! recently. ,

She yawned so widely that before she could close her mouth again, her jaw was dislocated, and she had to bfe removed to hospital where a minor operation had to be performed before her jaw could be restored to its normal condition.

Perhaps the most curious feature of a yawn is its infestiousness. A certain practical joker has an enlarged photograph of a yawning child, hanging in his dining-room, and he always seats his guests facing the picture Nine people out of ten cannot resist yawning frequently in sympathy with the child in the picture. Yawning, however, is one of Nature’s safety valves, as it fills the lungs with fresh air. Sneezing, too, has many uses, but it lias fallen into repute since the days when snuff-tak-ing actually displaced the use of tobacco.

Sneezing has long been considered lucky in this country, though among one East African tribe it is regarded as a grave offence, in certain circumstances, and is punishable with death. Few people know that sneezing may be brought about by the sudden stimulation of the optic nerve, such as might be caused by a- bright light. At least one political meeting has been broken up by sneezing. Som-te antagonist of the principal speaker knew that his enemy had a bad cold. He doctored up a handkerchief with cayenne pepper and surreptitiously pushed it into the speaker’s pocket, while he was mingling with a crowd. In the middle of his speech the unfortunate man pulled out the handkerchief and applied it to his nose, with the consequence that such a paroxysm of sneezing followed as to force him to leave the platform. Sneezing may seem a simple, sudden thing, but this is a scientific description of a sneeze. It Is “a sudden involuntary expiration of air through the nose. The stimulus is conveyed by the trigeminal to the medulla, where it induces a reflex act of respiration. - The act consists of a quick inspiration, followed by a violent expiration, in which the fauces are generally closed, thus causing the air to be driven through the nose; the glottis remains open throughout.’ Or, in other words—“A-TISHOO !”