THE HOME.

White Ribbon, Volume 12, Issue 144, 15 May 1907, Page 10

THE HOME.

Deep Breathing.

The .remarkable .success attending the open-air treatment of consuinpti », 1 as demonstrated the inestimable value o! an abundant supply of pure air during the night as well as the day. We no longer close up our doors, windows and fire-places, but invio* into our bedrooms the fr?est supply obtainable of the life-giving atmosphere. Air, like food, however, must be taken into the system before it can in any way benefit us. Improper methods of breathing, or deficient lung capacity, will prevent us from obtaining the full benefit of the air by which we are everywhere surrounded.

'l'lie art of breathing is important, and very many suffer from lack of knowledge in this respect. Breathing, generally speaking, is an involuntary action, that is, it is accomplished without the intervention of the mind. The respiratory muscles are controlled by involuntary nerve centres. These, however, Can be Educated and Trained by tin* mind, and faulty habits may thus be overcome. When the mind has educated the respiratory nerve centres to right action, they will do their work independently. The correcting of improper methods of breathing may mean a little watchfulness and care to begin with, but persevering efforts will finally be rewarded by natural, deep, involuntary, regular expansion of tin* lungs.

Mouth breathing not only causes an unnatural amount of movement of the structuies of the throat, but it also permits the impurities of the atmosphere to gain entrance to the throat, bronchial tubes and lungs. The month is not provided with any means for removing tin* great amount of dust and germs of disease which so plentifully fill the atmosphere. I'lie dust causes irritation of the delicate tissues of the throat, and prepares a soil in which the germs <»f disease develop. (Terms are like tin* seeds of plants; they will not develop without a certain amount of decaying organic matter, warmth and moisture. Breathing through the mouth supplies both the decaying organic matter and the

germs ; the irritation of the mucous membrane of the throat supplies the necessary moisture, and thus the little vegetable organisms, the germs, grow and produce their characteristic diseases. The nose to a very great extent removes the impurities of the air we breathe by means of the delicate hairs seen just within the orifices, which attract the dust and germs as the air is being inspired. In most people, especially with women, the respiration is altogether too shallow, the delicate air cells of the lungs Are Never Thoroughly Distended, and deficient ai rat ion of the blood and lack of energy of mind and body is the result. Deep breathing is exceedingly beneficial, but it should be natural. Nineteen out of twenty people iu taking a deep breath really suck the air in, ami do not bring the proper respiratory muscles into action at til. In this sucking process the lungs are inflated something like a schoolboy would in Hate a football. If the lungs were weak and predisposed to hemorrhage, the effort to inflate the In tigs in this manner might lead to serious bleeding. In natural breathing the respiratory "insoles increase the capacity of the chest, and tiie lungs, by the mere pressure of the atmosphere, follow its expanding walls. There is thus no undue tension brought to play on tlie delicate lung cells as is the case when air is forcibly sucked into the lungs From a lecture by Dr. IV. Howard James.