The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-10-20
PURIFY YOUR LUNGS.
PROPER BREATHING is ESSENTIAL TO
GOOD HEALTH.


GOOD HEALTH.
| A Prescription Which Costs Nothing
and Which Has Been Known to
cure Colds and Avert Pneumonia.
A Warning to Mothers.
Sensible people who are tolerably IA
miliar with the benefits conferred upon
their race by modern science have ceased
to hold up the ways of our forbears as
examples for our imitation. Unless the
exception to this rule be barbaric block
head, he admits that wells sunk in the
heat of the city or in the vicinity of q
farmyard or at the foot of a hillside
cemetery had much to do with the putrid
fcvers that walked, a devouring pesti-
lence. in the darkness Of the good old
times. He appreciates that the active
life led by day in the open air was need
ed to counteract in his great-grandfa-
theirs system the evil effects of sleeping
upon feather bed in low browed room
whose dormer windows were not opened
all winter long. He is not ignorant of
salutary dietetic restrictions and food
values, although he may cling to the
wrctched theory that our ancestors lived
longer and were stronger even down to
old age than we. their degenerate de-
sccnGants, can hope to do and to be.
Yet a majority of sensible people in
this the cycle of practical common sense
are ignorant of or culpably negligent in
the practice of tho technique of breath
ing. Four-ffths of the race do not
breathe properly once in "a hours. Dog
berry, oft quoted and never stale, set tho
pace of the average thinker. 1t is no
more rational to opine that the right
method of respiration comes by nature
than that reading and writing do. in
the golden by and by which is to confirm
all which is good in our generation and to
rcctify the evil, breathing will be taught
in the nursery and made the first order Of
the day in the kindergarten. The intelli-
gent mother will explain to the child
upon her knee the use of his lungs as she
now expatiates upon the propriety Of
washing face and hands.
How many educated mothers-though
they may be college graduates-bethink
themselves of the unpleasant fact that
they carry about with them daily and al
low to remain in their children's lungs a
quantity. more or less in volume, of foul,
unchanged air? Psychologists know and
physicians will tell you-with careless
ness that is strange when one considers
the gravity of the circumstance-that
there is always in the lungs what is
known technically as "residuary air."
Furthermore, that seven deep, deliberate
respirations are necessary to expel this
resicuum and to supply Ns place with
fresh air. III piled with further Ques-
tions, the nm of healing divulges that
most people never breathe all the way
down to the bottom of the lungs; that, in
consequence of this neglect, the lower
lungs become inactive. sometimes afro
ENTHUSIASTICALLY (although such cases
are phenomenaD ossiffed.
Reduction to Ineligible English elu-
cidates the truth that health and vigor
depend largely upon the action of the
lungs and that when this important func-
ton is impaired disease and weakness
must cnsHe.
a celebrated health club to which I
have had the honor and happiness to be-
long fer some years enjoins upon each
member the duty of taking 100 deep
breaths every day. advising that these be
drawn in sections of ten each, at con-
vcnient seasons. Those who practice
learn TO take advantage of the freshest
air to be had in the course of the day.
The first ten brcaths are enjoyed after
leaving the morning bath. The shoulders
are thrcwn back, the chin is level or
slightly raised. the arms are held tightly
ut the side, the lips are firmly closed.
"Never breathe with the mouth cpen" is
an admonition which cannot be too rigid
ly enforced.
The ten breaths are drawn from new,
live air, not that which has stagnated all
night in the house. Each inspiration Is
slow and steady. filling the lungs to their
depths, the live air is held for few sec
onds, then respired as slowly as it was
drawn in. To throw it out in a rapid
pant is hurtful to muscles and tissues.
Ten breaths taken in this way will not
only strengthen and refresh the respira-
tory apparatus but quicken the blood
into a livelier flow so naturally and
BEAUTIFULLY that the action of the heart is
not made irregular. The skin all over
the body is tinged with clear pink, the
system having been awakened all along
the line of life. In cold weather ten
deep brcaths, taken on the ferry boat, the
keen salt air tineling in the nostrils, or in
the teeth Of a north wind tearing down
the street, will warm one from head to
toe. The thought and the action become
an instinct In time, the duty pleasure
which is missed when omitted.
When the lungs are threatened with
severe cold. pneumonia may be-often is
-,avcrted by persistent and careful deep
sea souuting and dredging. l have per-
sonally known more than one case where
a cure OF inflammation of the lungs was
effected by the simple process of lying in
bed and breathing deeply and regularly
for hours together. The respirations
were timed by the resolute patients
watch. and the air replenished, not from
oxygen tanks, but from the blessed serv-
ice OF heaven. judiciously introduced into
the siciroom.
| have known dozens Of instances
where narrow chests were made full and
deep. tender Threats healed and general
health improved by quiet, conscientious
obedience to this law of nature. The
prescription costs nothing, the practice
involves no outlay beyond little taking
of thought and the beneficent occupation =,
Of few dl;hlets Of time. :
Those who live by half breaths, snatch
ing Mt these with parted lips and in fe-
verish haste, who tell you without a
blush that they "have not time to draw
long breath between daylight and dark"
may not complain that they live out but
half their days.-Marion Harland in New
York Herald. !: