42383 mbs 020

MY BREATHING SYSTEM

always be performed rather slowly. Referencc to “ Y Tv System ” will show that I always recommend thc practice of slow exhalation during thc performance of tlie muscular and gymnastic exercises, and of the rubbing movemcnts as well, even in cases where I sometimes prescribe a rather brisk inhalation. And I adhere, of coursc, to the same principlc in this booklet. The scicntitic reason for such slow performance of e.\halation is as follows:—

The walls of each of the four hundred millions of yesicles in the lungs arc constructed of elastic fibres. But this clas-ticity will in time be lost if the fibres are expandcd too much or too often udthout giving thern siifficicnt time to contract eigain. This is cxactly the case with ordinary indiarubber when it is misused. If the yesicles are always filled with air by fuli inhalations, and if they are never given sufficient time to contract and again cxpel thc air by dccp and slow cxhalations, the result will be b}’ degrees a morbid slackness of thc fibres. When it is remembered that during deflation each of thc seyeral millions of yesicles of the lungs has to contract to about one-third of its capacity when distended, it will be readily understood that a considerable amount of time is reąuisite for the process. The reader may have met athletic-looking wcight-liftcrs or gymnasts or “ strong men ” with chests as high, broad and archcd as a barrel. Some may have admired or cven coycted these barrels. But in most cases such chests are but “ whited sepulchres." The ribs liave becoine practically immoyable, and thc yesicles of the lungs have lost their elasticity. Such a chest will be unable to stand a protracted effort without injuring the lieart, and emphysema of the lungs itself will probably cause premature dcath of the individual. Therefore the ideał should be a moyable thorax and elastic yesicles, trained just as much by steady conlraction as by expansion.

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