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MY BRKATHINTt SYSTEM

our breathing ? ” The author (Dr. Hulbert) submits that this is accomplishcd by fixing tlie diaphragra thkough tiie action of Tire abdominat, muscles ; for, by this method, the lower ribs are most efficiently raised.

And, on p. 26: " By drawing in the front wali of the abdomen. the organs arc fixed in tlie arcli of thediaphragm. This is the first step ro be taken in latekai. costal

BREATHING.”

Here once morę Dr. Hulbert is wrong. If we simply draw in the front wali of the abdomen, the desccnt of the dia-phragm is impeded, and we shall not get the lower lobes of the lungs fuli}- inflated ; and, if we contract or brace this abdominal wali, it will be quite impossiblc to raise the lower ribs, and we shall ncvcr get a fuli breath. It is so simple that everybody can try it on himself. On p. 9, Dr. Hulbert gives a quotation from an " authoritative ” ana-tomical work, Ouains “ Text-Book of Anatomy.” Let me quote a fcw passages from this work :—

" The action of the diaphragm is morę easily understood than that of the intercostal muscles. By its contraction and desceut its convexity is diminished, the abdominal riscera arc pressed downward, and the thorax expanded vcrtically. The fibres arising from the ribs, being directed nearly vertically upwards from their origins, must tend to raise thosc ribs • and Duchenne has shown that the contraction of the diaphragm by itself clcvates and expands the ribs to which it is attached, but only so long as the vault of the muscle is supported by the abdominal yiscera; for, when they are removed, it no longcr has that action. . . . The keynote of the position is in the action of the diaphragm described by Duchenne, who has shown tłiat the contraction of the diaphragm by itself elevates and expands the ribs to which it is attached so long as the vault of the muscle is supported by the abdominal viscera,"

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