The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-09-16
Breath Gymnastics.

The value of deep breathing with a
clO-ed mouth has recently been preached
with emphasis by many eminent German
doctors, including Professor Kecham, Mark
er, Reich. Thilenius, and others Anyone
may convince himself # its usefulness If he
will be the pains to practice it regularly
and methodIcaIly. Its value consists in the
bene6cient influence upon the life of the
blood. muscles, and nerves, and in its invi-
gOration of the digestive and respiratory
organs. Its preachers even claim for it a
power of suppressing the germs of malady
in the latter The methodicaI use of this
Breath Gymnastics (IMen1gyDanastics).
as DR.. Paul Hiemeyer. of Leipsig, calls it,
may be soon described The gymnasist
must take his stand out of doors in the good
air, or at least at an open widow, and inhsle
by means OF his nose mot of his mouth
successive atmospheric draughts. The ex-
erclse must not be gone through hastily or
sp ismodlcally, but patiently deliberately,
and pleasurably, and with the fullest atten-
lion and intent on, so that the introduced air
may force its way without check into the
smaller air-passages. The inhalation must
be followed by an energetic and forcible ex-
haIation. A complete internal change of
air does not indeed take place but only a
rtial and very moderate change, because
a strong and undischarged arrears, in a re- .
sidutl air. remains, and always must re-
main. in the body. Men in studies and
close offices. one authority reminds us.
form an iHveterate habit of incomplete and
unfinished breathing, rhich can only be
cured by artificial exercise and if this is
done, the bodily. and these with the mental,
org ,nism. must necessarily suffer Dr. HE
meyer, in his book on the lungs (Die
Lungel and ia the second edition of his
more popular treatise the diseases which
result from king cold has dwet upon the
importance of the training of the lungs, and
the regular use Of breath exercise He
thinks that teachers In schools ought to i'm
press upon their pupils the need Of system
attic bre thing gymnastics the profit of
which soon becomes evident In the young
Among adults the regular employment Of
such exercises is likely to lapse through
negligence, w.nt of opportunity, or forget
illness, though. even in their case the real
difficulty TO be overcome is the serious be-
ginning of such a process. After a few
weeks however, all the labor and burden
someness of the operations disappear, and it
grows natural and easy, and needs no spe-
eial attention to keep the pumpworks' in
motion.
Anybody wishing to accustom himself to
regular daily lung exercises should take a
lonely walls or stand alone in a room at the
open window, and count his aspirations giving
his whole thonght to the business. From
90 to so inspirations should be taken in
one course, perhaps fewer at the beginning.
but more later; and this cycle be repeated
twice or three times every day.
In short time the breath gymnasiast
loses all need of counting. and learns
know instinctively where and where to stop,
the mechanism of the exercise becoming, so
to speak, self-directing. A valuable subSid-
iary product Of these exercises is the nor
nal gain which 9ecrues to the ordinary
business of breathing; the practised exer-
ciser of his lungs in this manner comes
inse lsby and without forethought to take
deeper and longer breaths of air. and the
breath accustoms itself by degrees to per-
form its obligations better than hitherto.
that is to say. naturally, and without any
effort of will or recollection.