Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-09-26

slowly leave the lungs. By consciously
breathing in this manner the lungs will
be enlarged and strengthened and the
breathing will become slower. Normal
breathing when the body is at rest
should not include more than ten breaths
in minute. l get along very comfort
ably, sleeping or waking, with about six.
During exercise of an ordinary charac-
ter the breathing will naturally increase
to fourteen or fifteen breaths in q minute.
ain all lung exercises these organs
should be inflated upward and outward
instead of downward. The chest and
lungs should be carried as if the imitation
were about to lift the body off the ground
upward and forward. The feeling of
buoyancy produced by this habit is not
an illusion by any means, but genuine
reality.
"But to breathe properly one must
know how the body should be carried.
First learn how to stand. If 1 were to
choose twelve people at random, and,
placing them in row, were to take a
liberal drawing of their actual standing
positions, they would present curious
spectacle. The distended abdomen and
more or less flattened chest would pre-
vail in q majority of the dozen subjects,
while in eleven out of twelve the bone
structure OF the body and not the mus
cles would be found doing most of the
work of keeping the body upright. The
abdomen is pushed into disagreeable
prominence by allowing the body to rest
on the legs as best it may, which pro.
duces rounding of the shoulders and
conspicuousness of the abdominal re.
gion. This attitude is just as common
among women as men, in fact even moro
so with the former, for corsets, while
theoretically holding the body up, en-.
courage lassitude of the waist region.
Then, again, women like to affect a
'willowy' style of standing and moving;
many girls seem to think that there is o
kind of feminine charm in a lackadaisical
manner 1t is the muscles that should hold
| the body in position and the bone structure
| of the body should not be forced to per-
form this work. The task of holding the
trunk erect and of keeping the proper
| relation between the spine and the pelvis
| devolves upon the muscles, and it is
worth remembering that the height of a
man may be materially affected by the
manner in which he carries himself. L
he uses the muscles of the hip and alb
dOmlnal region and of the hack instead
| of allowing his trunk to settle down hi
may be certain of establishing better
height than if he did otherwise, and this
status will be permanent. OF course,
the spine may be relied upon to give a
certain support to the trunk, but the
multitude of muscles associated with the
spine are intended to perform the greater
part of the work i'll keeping the body in
position. The muscles should not only
direct the posture of the body but largely
support it, and this should be remember
ed in standing and in every other posi-
ton and action. To do this does not
imply greater labor, but less: and what
begins by conscious effort will soon end
in habit that will become an exhilara-
ton. What often passes for fatigue of
the muscles is simply irritation, arising
from impeded circulation of the blood.
"This numbness or irritation from inn
peded circulation is particularly likely to
result from bad habits in sitting. In this
position, as in standing, the muscles
must be brought into play, and precisely
in proportion to the extent to which they
are used will be the absence of fatigue in
sitting. OF course l do not maintain that
one should continually sit bolt upright,
for this would entail great fatigue to a
person compelled to sit during great
many hours each day. Some of the
muscles may be relaxed and the position
modified for short periods, but they
should never be SO relaxed as to drop the
trunk upon the spine, leaving it's own
bone structure to hold it in position.
Those who have dropped into this round
backed posture will testify to a peculiar
WEAKNESS in the lumbar region of the
spine or what is called the small of the
back This is not because the muscles
are tired, but because they have been
benumbed by failure in the circulation.
A proper maintenance of muscular action
will keep up the healthy circulation and