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MY BREATHING SYSTEM

are so strong that they are able to break a chain, put around the chest, by expanding the ribs. According to the fallacious tlicory cited above it is the diaphragm which extends the ribs, which implies tliat the liver and stornach must be as hard as stone ; for, as they do not give way, the poor chain has to go ! That the conception of the viscera acting as a firm support for the working diaphragm is non-sense is obvious when one remembers tliat the diaphragm descends each time that the ribs are expanded during inhalation, and thus exerts a downward pressure upon the always soft viscera. (The abdomen then protrudes a httle, but when the ribs, during further inhalation, are raised and expanded still morę, the skin is, of coursc, tightened and the abdominal wali somewhat flattened.)

In German books we find precisely similar wrong ideas conceming the diaphragm. For mstance, in Dr. Keller-Hoerschelmann’s “ Mein Atmungssystem,” pp. 44 and 45 : " Let us first consider Inspiration. By the contraction of the diaphragm the thorax is cxpanded in such a manner that the ribs are raised, and tliat outwards, but only so long as the viscera fili the abdomen. If the resistance of the viscera is lacking—then the ribs will contract. . . . The diaphragm needs the support of the viscera to be able to raise and expand the ribs. But if strong abdominal musclcs are present, these will brace themseh es without contracting, and will furnish the abdominal cavity, at the sides and to the front, with firm walls which will not give way. When the visccra are thus unable to escape, they must themselves withstand the pressure, and are somewhat compressed, whereby they make a firm support for raising and expanding the ribs,” The same dcscription is found verbatim in Dr. Paul Jaerschky's “ Koerperpflege.” pp. 39-40. What a laboured method of explaining the simple process of inhalation !

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