COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE 
 
 HEALTH SCIENCES STANDARD 
 
 RECAP 
 
 HX64075265 
 R A782 H 83 Breathe and be well, 
 
 AN D 
 
 WILLIAM LEE HOWAKD M.D. 
 
// 
 
 PenRose memoRi/ic imAM 
 
 ''~j^ ■ 
 
 AVARJ9EB IFOR/ 
 03STIH'5HIISIMIE 
 
 Gold M.ed,^ 
 Jou.nd(;dv 
 
 (^p[)i^ book beloniocd b ^^ Ji 
 Vi^ t|)eCibrdir;g of Tl)e lab 
 
 1K.ic{)arc)<A'3^|)enro0e jr. 
 Ftoljicf) eatne to ®l)e (Beolosicaj 
 I ^ocietg of (3^mericatottj)Sii5 be- 
 I qmat an6 iar maintaineb b^H)e 
 I ^ociet^%0 a memorial b l)im 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2010 witii funding from 
 
 Open Knowledge Commons 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/breathebewellOOhowa 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
BOOKS BY 
 WM. LEE HOWARD, M.D. 
 
 SEX PROBLEMS IN WORRY AND 
 WORK 
 
 FACTS FOR THE MARRIED 
 
 PLAIN FACTS ON SEX HYGIENE 
 
 CONFIDENTIAL CHATS 
 WITH BOYS 
 
 CONFIDENTIAL CHATS 
 
 WITH GIRLS 
 BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
BREATHE AND 
 BE WELL 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM LEE BROWARD, M.D. 
 
 Author of 
 " Sex Problems in Worry and Work," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 EDWARD J. CLODE 
 
 PUBLISHER 
 
H^3 
 
 ^U JUL 1948 
 
 Copyright, 1916, bt 
 EDWARD J. CLODE 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
r^ 
 
 •^ 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 Optimism means to me Humanity. To 
 be impatient with humanity is stupid pessi- 
 mism. I have no warfare against those 
 who have neglected their latent physical 
 forces, but an urgent desire to show them 
 how to use and conserve these powers and 
 forces. 
 
 The general public are not upon familiar 
 terms with their bodies. They are better 
 acquainted with diseases than with health. 
 Poor health, in distinction to disease, is 
 almost invariably due to lack of under- 
 standing that the body is a machine which 
 must have proper fuel for combustion and 
 its boilers, pipes and exhausts must always 
 be kept clean — that oxygen must be sup- 
 plied in sufficient quantity, must burn up 
 waste material every living minute as well 
 as supply energy and new living stuff. 
 
 The secret is in knowing how to enlarge 
 
 [v] 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 the combustion chambers and control intake 
 and outgo. 
 
 The purpose of this little book is to 
 show how it should and can be done with- 
 out littering the reader's mind with physio- 
 logical explanations and technical terms 
 and details. 
 
 [vi] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. General Observations upon 
 
 Health 3 
 
 II. The Morning Fresh Air Cock- 
 tail — The Nightcap — How to 
 Breathe Them In . . . . 23 
 
 III. The Little Things that Prevent 
 
 Proper Breathing .... 45 
 
 IV. Snoring — The Causes and Cures 67 
 
 V. Breathing for Beauty — Breath- 
 ing AND Eating .... 81 
 
 VI. Breathing Through the Skin 
 
 Necessary for Health . . . 100 
 
 VII. New Tissues for Old — Rejuven- 
 ating THE Body and Skin . . 117 
 
 VIII. Some Simple Breathing Exercises 139 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON 
 HEALTH 
 
 " Most of the ills which we poor mortals know, 
 From doctors and imagination flow." 
 
 — ChURCHILI/. 
 
 If life is short and art is long, why not 
 change this by prolonging life through the 
 art of breathing? A rather mixed epigram, 
 perhaps, but it has instructive meaning. 
 One can live longer and live better by know- 
 ing how to breathe properly; and knowing 
 how to do this is an art by itself, requiring 
 patience and practice as well as the riddance 
 of many antiquated ideas of man's place 
 and work in this world. 
 
 I learned the first principles of the art of 
 
 breathing from a pet horse. He is now a 
 
 pensioner, living on the best and getting 
 
 with me the pure country air. He is near- 
 
 [3] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 ing thirty years, but, with the exception of 
 faihng sight, is as lithe, handsome and full- 
 muscled as a youngster. 
 
 Not having any jumping or running ex- 
 ercises he still insists upon filling his lungs 
 to the full, when let out in the paddock 
 every morning, rain or shine, snow or storm. 
 He takes a little gallop, then stops with legs 
 spread outward and wide apart, lifts his 
 head and neck until there is no bend or 
 stricture of the breathing canals, and gives 
 a loud, whistling snort. This snort empties 
 his lungs. You can see his big chest con- 
 tract. He does not then take a deep inhala- 
 tion, but continues to blow out of his lungs 
 every bit of stable air. This accomplished, 
 he commences slowly to take in air until his 
 chest, veins and arteries fairly swell. His 
 muscles become rigid, and, with a final roar- 
 ing snort, the exercise is over for the morn- 
 ing, and he starts grazing. 
 
 I have noticed this trick with all big ani- 
 mals when released to the open. I have also 
 seen feeble attempts by those kept most of 
 [4] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 the time in close stables and harnessed be- 
 fore they can open their lungs to their real 
 capacity. Not being able to start on their 
 daily work with a purified physical organi- 
 zation, they soon grow listless and aged be- 
 fore their allotted time. 
 
 Most of us are stabled animals and jump 
 from our sleeping stalls to put on tight 
 neckwear or confining waistbands before we 
 have had a good snort in fresh air and a run 
 around the paddock. 
 
 If a blacksmith pushed down the bellows 
 only two-thirds of their depth, that is if he 
 failed to use one-third of their air space, the 
 coals would fail to give him all their latent 
 energy. Also, he would have to use more 
 effort himself and, in the end, would find 
 left over many half or partly burnt coals, 
 clogging ashes. And, unless he was aware 
 of the real cause, he would put the blame 
 upon the fuel. 
 
 The same conditions are true of the steam 
 engine. Its drafts — bellows — must be given 
 full opportunity to throw air into the fuel; 
 
 [5] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 get all possible energy out of it and leave 
 only fine ashes. If these conditions do not 
 prevail, potential energy is dissipated, fire- 
 boxes become clogged and pipes and boilers 
 lined with the by-products of insufficient 
 combustion. Then come all sorts of trou- 
 bles; sometimes the intricate machinery is 
 ruined — goes to the scrap heap. 
 
 Many men and women go to the human 
 scrap heap for similar reasons. They have 
 not known just how to pump the human 
 bellows — the lungs ; get energy out of every 
 ounce of fuel, keep their arteries and veins 
 clean, kidneys and liver from being poi- 
 soned by unconsumed material. 
 
 Fresh air is the staff of life. No man 
 or woman can reach the best possible 
 growth and development if deprived of 
 fresh air for a few hours every day. One 
 may live in a room where fresh air con- 
 stantly circulates, yet not get its benefit 
 through wrong starts in the morning and 
 ignorance of the right methods of breath- 
 ing. 
 
 [6] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 We cast off and put on new growths 
 every minute of our lives. Growing old in 
 the fifties or sixties is an unnatural state 
 of affairs. It is a symptom of careless- 
 ness, or ignorance of the human machine. 
 Let every cell in the body — and the body 
 is only an aggregation of differentiated 
 cells — receive blood purified by oxygen, 
 and, organic disease being absent, the man 
 or woman of sixty can keep on renewing 
 health and energy. Yes; even if at this 
 age there is a clogging of unburnt stuff; 
 creaking joints, difficult breathing upon 
 physical effort, rapid heart-beats; you can 
 renew somewhat your whole body. You 
 can clean out the deleterious material and 
 start afresh. 
 
 If you will recall the lives of famous 
 singers you will be surprised to notice how 
 long-lived they were, and how full of 
 energy and charm are those now living 
 who have passed their threescore. Now, 
 one of the first things a singer has to learn 
 is to breathe correctly. 
 [7] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 When you attempt to run some distance 
 there comes a " stitch in the side." It is 
 a good sign for you if you profit by it. 
 It is good to exercise to the point of get- 
 ting that " stitch." What it really means 
 is that you have discovered a large area of 
 unused lung cells which you did not know 
 existed in you. These have remained 
 closed most of your life, since the passing 
 of childhood and its games, and are now 
 opening to receive the fresh air you are 
 pumping in through extra efforts to 
 breathe. 
 
 These unused cells are slightly stuck to- 
 gether and collapsed upon themselves. 
 The sharp pain is due to the air forcing 
 them apart. When you keep going and 
 the distress is over, you get into what, in 
 sporting terms, is called " second wind." 
 You are then using all your bellows' ca- 
 pacity and force. You are burning a lot 
 of stored-up waste material and also giving 
 new life to internal organs. 
 
 It is not the tall, big-boned individual 
 
 [8] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 who lives the longest and best resists dis- 
 eases. It is the big-chested, compact man 
 and woman, for it is equally necessary, 
 even more important, for the woman to 
 have big lung space. 
 
 About one-third of lung capacity is un- 
 used by the average person. This third 
 is the lower portion of the lungs — ^where 
 you get that " stitch in the side." 
 
 The human bellows differs from the me- 
 chanical in having its leathery covering con- 
 tain a spongy mass of air cells. Around 
 these air cells flows the blood. It reaches 
 every cell open for it. Remember this dis- 
 tinction — " every cell open for it." All 
 impurities in the blood are burnt up by the 
 oxygen sent to it. Then the building 
 blood is sent by means of the arteries to 
 every portion, organ and cell in the body. 
 Upon its return to the lungs by the way of 
 the veins and right heart, it carries waste 
 stuff in the form of carbonic acid, which 
 is thrown off when you exhale your breath. 
 
 Right here is where so many breathe 
 
 [9] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 wrongly — they take deep inhalations, but 
 neglect the absolutely necessary forcible 
 exhalations. You can do as the horse does 
 in this matter without the audible snort. 
 Those who practice deep breathing usually 
 try to see how full they can inflate the 
 chest, but not how completely they can 
 empty it. 
 
 In the human machine the burning and 
 purifying, the cleansing and renewing are 
 intended to keep the body active and young 
 from the root of the hairs to the little toe 
 nail. And in all animals free in the open, 
 it is an involuntary act and should be so 
 in man. But too often man's neglect 
 of his mechanical forces leads to self-de- 
 struction. If there is any mechanical ob- 
 struction, such as too tight shoes or garters, 
 wrong sitting postures, as examples, which 
 prevents the blood from carrying away dead 
 material from the toe and replacing it with 
 new, we have the commencement of death 
 in the toe. This is true of any part of 
 the body where there is some interference 
 [10] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 or interruption of the blood flow, or what 
 is better said, of the fresh-air effects of 
 proper breathing. 
 
 This rotting off of an extremity we call 
 gangrene. Poor or imperfect circulation 
 is the real cause of this most horrible con- 
 dition, and imperfect circulation is mostly 
 due to imperfect breathing, barring the me- 
 chanical obstructions. To be sure, gan- 
 grene usually occurs in the aged; aged be- 
 cause the individuals have not used the full 
 capacity of their lungs during active life. 
 The gangrene occurring among wounded 
 soldiers is quite another matter, although 
 here its primary cause is mechanical — shot 
 wounds, allowing the entrance of noxious 
 gases and germs. In the present world 
 war it is complicated by the breathing in 
 of poisonous gases. 
 
 But the destruction of extremities and 
 even internal organs in the aged is due to 
 the fact that as the years have gone on the 
 blood has had less and less oxygen to send 
 to the extremities to burn up the soot clog- 
 
 [11] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 ging the tiny arteries and veins. Yet all 
 these destroying conditions might have been 
 avoided. 
 
 The woman who eats rich, nitrogenous 
 food, is tightly laced and never more than 
 half breathing, leaves a lot of unburnt fuel 
 in her system. When attacked by indiges- 
 tion, and later on finds she has inelastic 
 arteries — hardening of the arteries — she 
 blames the food and starts dieting — the 
 very worst thing she could do. 
 
 What such a woman needs is freedom to 
 breathe way down to the bottom of her 
 abdomen — " stomach " — allow oxygen to 
 set fire to the waste material ; release energy 
 for abdominal muscles to work. Under 
 these natural conditions she could eat 
 anything within reason and preserve her 
 form. 
 
 Fashion for women makes the superflu- 
 ous necessary in clothes, but it also causes 
 a superfluity of flesh which is an abomina- 
 tion. To attempt to show how necessary 
 it is to dress so as to breathe in such a 
 [12] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 manner as to keep thin, is like trying to 
 bore a hole in a cloud. 
 
 You can burn off fat by internal com- 
 bustion. You can keep the flesh firm, and 
 all your body curves and attractions, by 
 the habit of proper breathing. Doctors, 
 diet and distress are kept away by the 
 woman who uses to the full her breathing 
 apparatus. The same applies to the over- 
 fat man. 
 
 Most people fail to develop chest ca- 
 pacity to its fullest extent even through 
 systematic exercise, because the powerful 
 pushing muscle of the human bellows is not 
 developed and kept under voluntary con- 
 trol when needed. 
 
 This muscle is the diaphragm — a big flat 
 muscle. It forms the floor of the chest 
 cavity and separates it from the abdominal 
 cavity. In other words the trunk of the 
 body is a two-story building. The upper 
 story is where you really live and keep 
 your resources; the lower story where you 
 [13] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 send down from the living-room all the 
 used and unneeded things. 
 
 Here the janitor and his assistants — in- 
 testines, liver and other abdominal organs 
 — sort them out and place them where they 
 belong. 
 
 The blood renewed by the air you have 
 let into the upper apartment, the food 
 teeth and stomach have mixed and moist- 
 ened, are also sent down by way of the 
 arterial and intestinal stairways making 
 through the diaphragm or the floor separat- 
 ing the upper and lower apartments. 
 
 At rest the diaphragm is dome-shaped 
 with the curve upward. In this position it 
 of course decreases the size of the upper 
 story. In action it works just like the sides 
 of bellows. When you take a breath it 
 flattens out and with a full, deep breath it 
 curves downward. This movement further 
 increases the chest cavity. 
 
 Here is the really important point, es- 
 pecially for women and for men who have 
 built on swaying bay-windows: In the 
 [14] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 downward push of the diaphragm the ab- 
 dominal contents are forced ahead of it — 
 down and forwards. If the muscles of the 
 abdomen, external and internal, are in good 
 condition and under voluntary control, they 
 further press and massage the internal or- 
 gans. This means good tone to the lower 
 intestines and this also means avoidance of 
 constipation. So you see that a well- 
 developed chest action affects even remote 
 organs. 
 
 Breathing so as to inflate the lungs to 
 the full, is notice to the janitor and his 
 assistants in your basement to throw out 
 the ashes and garbage. 
 
 In exhaling the whole process is re- 
 versed. The abdominal muscles contract. 
 In this movement they push the abdominal 
 organs against the diaphragm. This latter 
 muscle rises in the center, thus forcing out- 
 ward the deleterious air in the lungs. 
 
 These facts show you that to breathe and 
 be well means a lot more than simple in- 
 spiration and expiration of pure air. The 
 [15] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 diaphragm is the muscle to look after, for 
 it pushes both dead matter out and draws 
 pure, live matter into the body. 
 
 The diaphragm is the midriff of Shake- 
 speare's time. It has always played its 
 part in humorous descriptions of bellied 
 men and laughing, jovial fellows. Like 
 most parts of the human body it has had 
 its share in drama and literature, myths 
 and superstition. Old Melanchthon styles 
 the laughing muscle Generosum mem- 
 brum — a generous part. The writers of 
 the middle ages stated that the man with 
 small or weak midriff was sour, melan- 
 cholic; the man with a generous middle 
 muscle, jovial, gay and long-lived. If 
 Hamlet had been put through a training of 
 proper breathing it is probable that the 
 melancholy Dane might have had some Fal- 
 staffian traits; big, fatty Lady Macbeth 
 been free of her optical illusions and de- 
 pressions. 
 
 The real reasons for these distinctions so 
 well put by the old writers, is only further 
 [16] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 proof that careful observations of men's 
 moods show that they are governed by 
 physiologic laws. 
 
 The merry man is a laughing man. 
 Laughter is the best exercise for the 
 diaphragm; spontaneous, refreshing laugh- 
 ter. The dour, thin-bellied and small- 
 chested man gives his midriif no exercise 
 through pleasing laughter. The court 
 jesters of old, the professional laugh-maker 
 today, may be dwarfed, mis-shapen, but he 
 is big-chested way down to the sides of his 
 diaphragm. His stories and antics un- 
 doubtedly saved many men and women 
 from doctors' lancets and leeches, by forc- 
 ing them to cast out and burn up waste 
 material through hearty laughter — which 
 means that big and strong breathing mus- 
 cles were unconsciously developed. 
 
 The man without a sense of humor can 
 never utilize his full lung power; hence his . 
 blood is always short of oxygen, tissues 
 are underfed, and the resulting effects in- 
 crease his disagreeable personality. 
 
 [17] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 I knew Mark Twain personally; saw 
 much of him when he was in his physical 
 prime. He often loaned his stable loft for 
 us boys to use as a theater. When he 
 laughed, or even talked animatedly, you 
 could see his big midriff heave and take in 
 large quantities of oxygen. Yet in the 
 eyes of the ordinary observer Mr. Clemens 
 was not a large man. But his engine 
 power was great and this enabled him to 
 do a tremendous amount of work at an age 
 when most men are commencing to let up. 
 
 It has always been observed that the fat, 
 stout man is a jolly, laughing chap. But 
 if you carefully notice these cheerful men 
 you will see that the stoutness is not that 
 of over-fatness, pendent abdomens, but 
 due to big chests and midriffs well sup- 
 plied with a normal reserve of fat. 
 
 Such should be all men of middle and 
 later life. These well-preserved men and 
 women have power and space to breathe 
 correctly. They laugh because oxygen — 
 the real laughing gas — is a stimulant act- 
 [18] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 ing upon a healthy mentality. The flabby, 
 obtruding abdomen is due to weak and 
 undeveloped abdominal muscles and dia- 
 phragm and small chest capacity. In- 
 dividuals of this sort of physical make-up 
 are bilious, choleric and disinclined to go 
 beyond a smile under the most humorous 
 conditions. 
 
 The average man or woman pays more 
 attention to the movements of the ribs, 
 trying to get them to rise and fall with 
 increasing expansion, than to the develop- 
 ment of the abdominal muscles. These 
 muscles are really the pushing force for 
 the human bellows. Chest exercises are 
 quite necessary for health and longevity, 
 but never reach their full beneficial powers 
 unless the abdominal muscles are equally 
 developed and kept in the best of con- 
 dition. 
 
 Nowadays we are talking and reading a 
 lot about national preparedness, but what 
 is of paramount importance is to under- 
 stand the necessity and value of body 
 [19] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 preparedness to keep off the enemies all 
 around us in the air and food, and to 
 prevent physical laziness. The danger of 
 neglecting our defensive weapons and prac- 
 tice in using them, threatens many other- 
 wise careful of habits and exercise. 
 
 "Before the curing of a strong disease, 
 Even in the instant of repair and health, 
 The fit is strongest." — King John, Act II, Sc. 4. 
 
 Habits of living, clothing, constitutional 
 and inherited affections all need under- 
 standing before explicit details of breathing 
 can be given. Here, as in many other 
 things, the trite saying that " what is one 
 man's poison is another man's food " most 
 aptly applies. The over-fat, the too lean, 
 the sedentary and the physically active, 
 each needs different modes and methods of 
 learning how to breathe properly. The 
 girl who works in a shop, the woman in 
 the factory, the woman of society and the 
 man in office or on the street, all need to 
 know how to utilize their wasted and 
 [20] 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON HEALTH 
 
 neglected power for getting and keeping 
 in perfect condition; living long and work- 
 ing contentedly. 
 
 There are avoidable lassitude, unnecessary- 
 headaches, sleeplessness, which can be cured 
 by stopping the cause. Nervous instability 
 and the craving for stimulants or drugs, 
 infernal restlessness in the young, are many 
 times due to the effects of wrong breathing 
 habits. There are millions of men and 
 women, children and adolescents who sleep 
 while the retained poisons of the body go 
 on injuring nerves, brain and other deli- 
 cate organs. And all this in spite of the 
 fact that they sleep with open windows, 
 believe they have taken in fresh air dur- 
 ing the day and observed the generally 
 accepted rules of health. 
 
 With the increase of industrial plants in 
 this country has come an enormous in- 
 crease of occupational diseases due to the 
 intake of gaseous and chemical irritants 
 and poisons. These afflicted and threat- 
 ened workers need careful instruction and 
 [21] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 to be given a knowledge of preparedness 
 and defense. 
 
 There is scarcely a disease that does not 
 have its enemy in the blood or lymph — an 
 enemy ready to war and overthrow the host 
 of disease germs. But unless the roads 
 and passes are clear and ready to the re- 
 motest organ or vessel, they cannot do their 
 allotted work. Just because man has not 
 kept clean and free the highways and by- 
 ways in the body for his internal allies 
 to march over when called, is the cause of 
 disease. And these highways and byways 
 for the host of fighting bodies to rush over 
 only can be kept clear and free by know- 
 ing how to breathe. 
 
 [22] 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCK- 
 TAIL—THE NIGHTCAP— HOW 
 TO BREATHE THEM IN 
 
 I HAVE frequently watched a trout 
 breathe as it quietly rested in clear water. 
 Its breathing is regular, rhythmic, without 
 effort. He always seeks the waters flowing 
 over pebbles or coarse sand, as if there was 
 more oxygen in the little stirrings. Let 
 your shadow fall upon the water and the 
 fish is seen to disappear in just one poly- 
 chromatic flash. 
 
 If you have patience — and unless you 
 have the patience of determination, you 
 will never learn the secrets of nature — ^you 
 may see your trout return, but now breath- 
 ing rapidly and deeply. His gills open 
 wider and close quicker than before. After 
 a few moments in his resting pool he will 
 [23] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 slowly move up to where there is more 
 action in the water — air bubbles. Now he 
 will be seen to breathe deeply, very deeply. 
 The gills open so you can see the red of his 
 blood. Slowly he back-paddles until he 
 again resumes his former place and his 
 gills commence to open and close in effort- 
 less motions. 
 
 What that trout did was to recover a 
 normal heart-beat after a fright had caused 
 it to jump beyond its usual rate. When he 
 returned to his resting place he found there 
 had been more blood pumped into his lungs 
 than oxygen to take care of it. So he 
 moved up to where there were more air 
 bubbles, breathed deeply a few times, got 
 rid of heart-stimulating stuff, then dropped 
 down to easy and involuntary lung and 
 heart action. 
 
 Had he been chasing his lure, jumping 
 rapids or playing leap frog with the sun 
 rays, he would not have been compelled to 
 have searched for an extra amount of 
 air. There being no fright to upset the 
 [24] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 regular control of the breathing through 
 the nervous system, he would have had 
 only to rest while the lungs adjusted their 
 rhythm. 
 
 In man as well as in animals, fright, 
 extreme worry, shocks, affect the breath- 
 ing habits temporarily or permanently. 
 
 Civilized man does not know the how or 
 why of breathing so as to get the best 
 out of himself. Instead of starting him 
 right in this matter it has been left to the 
 involuntary action of muscles and their 
 control by the nervous system. This con- 
 trol will carry the ordinary individual 
 through the average length of life as we 
 know it, but a trained breathing apparatus 
 will enable man or woman to add to the 
 length of life and keep life's activity up to 
 good and profitable working conditions. 
 
 In most matters connected with indi- 
 vidual health forces and resources, we 
 are less knowing or instinctive than ani- 
 mals. Physically we are less protected by 
 nature than any other organism. We are 
 [25] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 more exposed at all points to the assaults 
 of danger and disease. We are more liable 
 to perish from cold, succumb to heat, die 
 from starvation. Yet we have the intel- 
 ligence when used to so clothe, eat and 
 breathe as to give us an endurance far 
 surpassing any animal. 
 
 We have a greater reserve force in our 
 breathing capacity than animals, which, if 
 properly developed, keeps the blood warm 
 and full of those cells which are active 
 enemies to disease germs. 
 
 As I write this the papers are full of 
 reports of deaths from pneumonia. Promi- 
 nent people, the young, the sturdy, the 
 athletic, are dying from this germ infec- 
 tion. Many victims of this quick-killing 
 infection have been those careful of their 
 health habits, big-chested, accustomed to 
 breathe in what they considered the cor- 
 rect way. But the one little thing which 
 would have enabled them to have had the 
 pneumonic germs killed at the start was 
 overlooked. They did not keep the air 
 [26] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 passages from the nostrils to the bronchial 
 tubes, absolutely clear and clean. This is 
 the gateway for the germs, and being un- 
 guarded, in they swarmed to find a splen- 
 did breeding and camping place — and the 
 bigger the chest capacity the bigger the 
 camp. 
 
 This naturally brings us to the subject 
 of what is fresh air under the conditions 
 most of us have to live, and why and how 
 to keep dirt and dust out of the external 
 air passages. 
 
 The average individual expels every hour 
 about twenty cubic feet of air. Remember 
 this means that in a closed room everyone 
 in it is throwing this amount of dead or 
 poisoned air into it. Without any ventila- 
 tion whatever, this air would have to be 
 rebreathed and death would only be a mat- 
 ter of time and individual resistance. But, 
 of course, these conditions . do not prevail. 
 We have all kinds of ventilation in houses, 
 big buildings and shops. We try to get 
 rid of this twenty cubic feet of air exhaled 
 
 [27] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 by each person by pumping about 3,000 
 cubic feet of outside air into the room. 
 With this outside air comes no end of dust 
 and germs, microbes and other wigglers. 
 It readily can be seen that too much of 
 this kind of air is of little benefit if not 
 actually dangerous, did we not possess in 
 our air passages enemies of these intruders. 
 Such air is always a danger to those who 
 do not know how to keep their air passages 
 immune to microbic invasion. 
 
 But another evil of this method of ven- 
 tilation: As the outside air pours into the 
 room it stirs up all sorts of impurities 
 which have harmlessly settled upon the 
 floors and puts them into circulation. 
 Every breath we take in such a room 
 carries some sort of dirt or germ toward 
 the lungs. When the New England house- 
 keeper takes her broom and other frighten- 
 ing tools to give the house its semi-annual 
 stirring up and cleaning out, including her 
 husband, she starts the germs and foul dust 
 circulating. No wonder that she and her 
 [28] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 children have their Spring colds, catarrh, 
 " bad coughs " and pneumonia. I suppose 
 this sort of house cleaning and dusting is 
 necessary, but it should be done when all 
 the members of the household can be away 
 and stay away for several days — until the 
 germs and dust left have been allowed to 
 again settle. A dust mask always should 
 be worn by those who are in the midst of 
 swirling germs. 
 
 According to Dr. C. F. Bennet, a noted 
 ventilating engineer, the air everywhere 
 contains quantities of dust and infective 
 material. Even in mid-ocean, when the 
 air is at its best, there are six microbes to 
 every cubic foot, and in New York prob- 
 ably 80,000 to every foot. 
 
 All this interests us in our subject of 
 correct breathing because it shows we can- 
 not avoid the presence or even the breath- 
 ing in of microbes. It also brings comfort 
 to those who have been under the impres- 
 sion that it was impossible for persons liv- 
 ing in city rooms or working in shops to 
 [29] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 derive health and secure immunity by any 
 method of breathing. It would appear at 
 the first thought that the less force one 
 put into breathing the less chance of tak- 
 ing in dust and germs. There is no man 
 or woman living who does not daily breathe 
 in disease germs. The germs of consump- 
 tion, of pneumonia, for example, are ever 
 floating about. Those who escape are 
 many — the great majority. But there 
 comes a time when the strongest are in- 
 fected. There is only one way to avoid 
 this fatal time: keeping the air passages 
 clear and clean and never leaving over in 
 the lungs any unburnt material. Of course 
 all these statements presume a careful ob- 
 servance of the general rules of health in 
 other matters. 
 
 There are peoples who live so near to na- 
 ture that they are perforce living examples 
 of what breathing fresh air will do for 
 man. Those who have read Gogul's 
 " Tar as Bubul," which is really " one tre- 
 mendous shout of joy," will realize the 
 [30] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 tremendous power given to all men who 
 live in the wild spaces — that is, in the open. 
 Immense vitality is what Gogul shows in 
 those men who are ever breathing air sat- 
 urated with oxygen. The American In- 
 dian's vitality and endurance were won- 
 derful. 
 
 When Russia needed men of endurance 
 it was the open-air breathing Cossack she 
 called to her aid. No matter about their 
 other traits, even if you do believe all 
 newspaper accounts. I do not believe them 
 all because I know the Cossack. What 
 we must consider is the utilitarian ends 
 they accomplished for Russia. 
 
 Wildness is only harmful when it is 
 licensed. Governed wildness is power. 
 You cannot get this wildness or vitality 
 from vitiated air. 
 
 Several fresh-air cocktails should be 
 taken every morning before dressing. One 
 of the most important things to do to make 
 ready for the morning drink of oxygen, 
 and one generally overlooked, is to un- 
 [31] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 twist the internal arteries and veins and 
 stretch the capillaries. These latter are 
 the very fine endings of blood-vessels: a 
 meshwork of such thin and tiny tubes that 
 the blood in them can pass growing ma- 
 terial through their walls and take up dead 
 stuff from the surrounding tissues. 
 
 When you are fully awake, stretch your 
 arms above your head. Stretch until you 
 feel or hear the joints and tendons are 
 tense. You may hear a sort of snap in 
 shoulder or elbow, especially if you are 
 one of the kind who have been accustomed 
 to get out of bed with a slide and lazily 
 shove yourself into your clothes with a 
 sigh and a slump. 
 
 After a tense stretch of the arms and 
 shoulders stretch both legs. Push them out 
 together at first and twist them upon them- 
 selves. Then extend as far as possible, un-^ 
 til you actually feel it lengthen, one leg at 
 a time. Do this four or five times. Now 
 get out of bed slowly. Never jump out 
 of bed or get up with a sudden start. 
 [32] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 Sometimes in strange places you might 
 find this advice impossible to follow, but 
 under those conditions you will not have 
 remained long enough to have the rapid 
 change from recumbency to a stretching 
 position do any harm. 
 
 To suddenly get out of bed after a 
 night's sleep is too much of a shock to the 
 heart and nervous system, which, like any 
 piece of machinery, must be started slowly 
 and with some warning of the work to be 
 done. 
 
 Many headaches, sometimes palpitation 
 of the heart, cold feet throughout the day, 
 indigestion after breakfast, are due to this 
 sudden starting and jolting of the human 
 machine. This especially applies to those 
 of nervous temperaments and the seden- 
 tary person, the over-fat and tippler. 
 
 To get the full benefit of the real and 
 only natural start for the day after a 
 night's rest of all the organs, you should 
 stand naked with the feet on some warm 
 stuff — not necessarily warmed. Then 
 [33] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 stretch the arms straight above the head 
 and try to pull the whole body upwards in 
 such a manner as to stretch the spinal 
 column. You want to try to pull on the 
 hips by reaching upward with extended 
 arms. Sway a little on the hips as though 
 loosening them a bit. Then pull slightly 
 on one side, then on the other, finishing 
 by a straight extension upwards. 
 
 It can be done with ease after a little 
 practice. You have seen a dog, upon ris- 
 ing, do about the same thing; pull and 
 stretch every leg, then neck, bend his body 
 with curve downward then upward, turn 
 his head around and give his tail a pull? 
 He will do this every time after a snooze 
 and before he will even chase a convenient 
 cat. He starts right, and this is the cause 
 of his gracefulness and activity, unless he 
 has contracted the habits of a fatty and 
 lazy mistress. 
 
 If you are measured in height before this 
 spinal extension and measured after, you 
 will find your height increased from a 
 [34] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 quarter to half an inch. In certain cases, 
 especially in the man not over forty, this 
 may be increased. 
 
 Yoii see that during the day the verte- 
 brae have settled down upon the little mats 
 which separate them — one between each 
 spinal bone. While you are sleeping their 
 elasticity has been restored but the pres- 
 sure of the day before not altogether re- 
 lieved. These spinal mats are far and 
 away superior to rubber heels in relieving 
 the spine and head from the constant 
 shocks and jolts received in walking. In 
 fact that is just what they are for. There 
 are many of them and they will not wear 
 out if you know how to care for them. 
 By the method I am advising their resili- 
 ency may be renewed each day. Then you 
 may retain that " springy walk " evidential 
 of health. 
 
 A few weeks' practice of this spine 
 stretching will give you the actual ability 
 to start every morning with a spinal col- 
 umn free from any left-over pressure, its 
 [35] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 capillaries freshly ready to receive the 
 oxygenated blood you are to send them, 
 and retards the shortening of the height 
 which accompanies age. Many tender and 
 lame backs are due to pressure on these 
 little spinal mats. The exercise outlined 
 will very often relieve this painful con- 
 dition. 
 
 With this spine exercise goes also the 
 stretching of abdominal organs and abdomi- 
 nal muscles. Also the legs, for we have 
 not yet done with them. 
 
 Bend each leg upon itself until the heel 
 strikes the buttock. Do this several times. 
 Then, alternately, bring up each leg so it 
 straightens out at right angles to the body. 
 While in this position work each toe, bend- 
 ing it backward and pulling it forward. 
 Or rather try to do this, which is a differ- 
 ent thing altogether as you will discover. 
 You will derive some amusement in at- 
 tempting to get voluntary control over 
 each toe muscle; also you will learn a few 
 important facts about real health. You 
 [36] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 will realize how far backward or forward, 
 as you like, you have gone from your 
 arboreal ancestors who could use their toes 
 as readily as they used their fingers. It is 
 really one of the arts we should have re- 
 tained for perfect health. Because, if you 
 want a perfect circulation all over the 
 body, if you desire feet free from corns 
 and pain, pretty pink toes, you must get 
 this control over each toe. 
 
 In a natural state man's toes should be 
 as much under voluntary muscular control 
 as his fingers. 
 
 The toes are under voluntary control by 
 men of all races which have not in some 
 manner paralyzed or caused them to 
 atrophy — shrink — as we have. The Chi- 
 nese custom of binding the feet of females 
 is one extreme of toe distortion and paraly- 
 sis. Our tight shoes and the confining of 
 our children's feet in stiff footwear instead 
 of permitting them to run barefoot, is a 
 halfway method of causing distortion. The 
 Japanese — you have watched their jugglers 
 
 [37] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 and pole-climbers — have complete control 
 over their feet and toe muscles. It is stated 
 by reliable observers that the three great 
 factors which made the Japanese army so 
 formidable, were the freedom from foot 
 sores and foot fatigue, and absence of 
 alcohol. 
 
 But we are doing better in the matter 
 of feet distortion. Styles in footwear are 
 changing so as to give more freedom to 
 the toes. Dancing and skating are going 
 to develop these freed toes and their tiny 
 muscles. 
 
 The best way to get voluntary control 
 over the toe muscles is to work all the toes 
 at once until there is developed a group 
 control. Then by mental concentration, 
 determination and knowledge of the neces- 
 sity of individual control, you can accom- 
 plish it. 
 
 But what has all this to do with breath- 
 ing? Everything! There is no use learn- 
 ing to breathe correctly unless every organ 
 is in the best condition to profit by your 
 [38] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 full intake of oxygen or unless the last inch 
 in your body is in such a state that it can 
 readily cast off every particle of dead 
 material. 
 
 And right here is where so many errors 
 and failures occur in the various advised 
 methods of " deep breathing." It has been 
 generally overlooked that the building and 
 renewing effects of oxygen can reach only 
 those parts made ready for them. If there 
 is any part of the body that is not con- 
 stantly ready, no methods of breathing ex- 
 ercises can possibly affect it. Hence you 
 may go on enlarging your chest, obtaining 
 greater breathing capacity and general 
 power, yet find in the end there is some 
 organ or muscle still remaining inactive or 
 dying for want of good blood nourish- 
 ment. 
 
 Let me illustrate. In Massachusetts we 
 have some rather severe weather in the 
 winters. To heat an old New England 
 tavern turned into a house of modern con- 
 veniences, requires a formidable heating 
 [39] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 plant. From the furnace in my house to 
 the harness-room is a distance of about 
 one hundred and fifty feet. When the fur- 
 nace fire was started this winter all — as 
 we believed — of the radiators, and there 
 are fifteen or more, gave out their allotted 
 amount of heat. The hot water circulated 
 from kitchen to attic, from study to labora- 
 tory. But it was discovered in time that 
 the radiator in the harness-room was cold- 
 dead. There was no circulation in that 
 radiator — ^the toes of the system. It meant 
 harm to the rest of the circulatory appara- 
 tus. So we investigated. The toes of the 
 whole heating system were constricted — 
 clogged completely. 
 
 The furnace was taking in oxygen and 
 burning fuel, giving us the comfort of its 
 energy, but its breathing was of no value 
 to the toe radiator. When we started the 
 circulation in that toe by cleaning out its 
 arteries and veins — ^the inflow and the out- 
 flow pipes — it received the full benefit of 
 the breathing furnace and horses and dogs 
 [40] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 were made comfortable. But more than 
 that; we saved the whole system from being 
 injured. 
 
 So must you see that all the little pipes 
 in your extremities are open to receive the 
 flow and return of warm blood. 
 
 To go back to our stretching and body 
 pulling. You are now ready for the morn- 
 ing fresh air cocktail. Every vein, artery, 
 capillary, is in a condition to receive and 
 digest blood, just as your stomach will be 
 to receive and care for food. 
 
 Assuming you have slept with window 
 open, had no gas or lamplight to eat up 
 oxygen, you should face the open air space 
 and empty your lungs. 
 
 Snort it out. Clear and clean the nos- 
 trils of all accumulations of the night by 
 forceful snortings. I like that word to 
 express my idea better than the one used 
 by the French doctors — s'egosiller. Now 
 take a partial inhalation; hold it for twenty 
 seconds, imagine yourself an exhaust pipe 
 of a motor and blow outwardly. 
 [41] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 With head held up so as to extend the 
 neck, shoulders back, arms at side, grad- 
 ually commence to breathe deeply and 
 slowly. Fill your lungs until you feel 
 " you'd bust," then let them empty them- 
 selves slowly and without force. Then, 
 fifteen, twenty times repeat this exercise 
 and you will find the feeling of blood cir- 
 culating from temples to toes beats that of 
 the noxious alcoholic cocktail and will drive 
 away a headache quicker and keep it away 
 by the correct action of healthful blood 
 upon the brain cells. 
 
 Now take your cold plunge or shower, 
 tepid sponge or spray, get into seasonable 
 clothing and your body machine is fit to 
 do the day's work without injury to any of 
 its parts and well supplied with lubricating 
 material and pure fuel. 
 
 Advice and rules regarding the fresh air 
 nightcap really belong to the details deal- 
 ing with vocations and the day's work. 
 Many men and women are advised to exer- 
 cise before retiring for the night. Most 
 [42] 
 
THE MORNING FRESH AIR COCKTAIL 
 
 persons today need rest and not mental or 
 physical exertion after the strains of their 
 day's efforts. 
 
 But, as a general rule, we may place 
 as the primary requisite the habit of clean- 
 ing out the air passages; of getting rid of 
 all the accumulated dust and microbes 
 which have found a warm and moist resting 
 place where, if given time, they will start 
 something. 
 
 The mouth, the teeth, the nostrils, the 
 nose passages, all need nightly attention. 
 Never use salt solutions nor any chemical 
 solution to wash out these air canals. Just 
 plain water, neither hot nor cold. 
 
 For your nightcap expel all the air pos- 
 sible from your lungs. Pay more attention 
 to exhaling than to inhaling. The latter 
 movement will take care of itself. The air 
 seldom has any trouble in getting in, but 
 the by-products of combustion do not so 
 readily get out without a little effort on 
 your part — this is especially true at night 
 when there is lessened nervous power. 
 [43] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 By practice you can make a very service- 
 able vacuum cleaner of your mouth and 
 nostrils, the power coming from chest and 
 abdominal muscles, the development and 
 use of which I shall explain further on. 
 
 [44] 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE LITTLE THINGS THAT PRE- 
 VENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 There is no more justification for hav- 
 ing catarrh than for having habitual cold 
 feet. However, a man chronically weakened 
 by an avoidable catarrh has some excuse 
 for having " cold feet " and letting the 
 yellow streak in him be demonstrated. 
 
 Catarrh is not due to any climatic con- 
 ditions nor to " catching cold." It is a 
 germ infection scattered by unclean mucous 
 membranes which spray the microbes by 
 the sneezing, coughing, expectorating car- 
 rier. 
 
 You jump away with alacrity when you 
 hear the sound of a rattlesnake because you 
 know what its warning means. You should 
 know that the sneezing, hawking, spitting 
 of a human being means he is throwing 
 [45] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 some form of venom into the air for you 
 to breathe in. We cannot at present en- 
 tirely prevent this menacing state of affairs, 
 but we can learn how to protect our air 
 passages from harboring the venom. 
 
 I repeat: Catarrh is not due to bad air 
 in the ordinary meaning of this term. This 
 brings us to the question: Just what is 
 " good air "? What is " fresh air "? 
 
 It is not necessarily outdoor air. It is 
 air which is in motion, dry and cool. 
 Fresh air and cold air are not identical. 
 There are certain conditions of the respira- 
 tory tract in which cold air is injurious. 
 It acts upon inflamed tissues as an irri- 
 tant, while fresh air warmed and in mo- 
 tion soothes and heals. It can be set 
 down as a rule that fresh air is a healing 
 and repairing factor in all throat and nose 
 troubles. 
 
 There is no such condition as " pure 
 
 air," if by that term is meant air which 
 
 does not contain bacteria or dust. Fresh 
 
 air always contains bacteria and dust. 
 
 [46] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 Such air is not injurious to anyone whose 
 breathing exits and entrances, tubes and 
 pipes are in a healthy condition — free from 
 inflammation and irritating substances. 
 
 Everyone feels better in fresh or out- 
 door air; so does an invalid or depressed 
 person; hence fresh air — air that is cool, 
 cold and moving — should be the kind of air 
 getting to the lungs. 
 
 The bracing, cold air of the winter, of 
 the mountains, of the snow-covered hills, 
 is always beneficial. But there is a cold 
 air state to be avoided. This is the still, 
 stagnant air remaining in unventilated and 
 unheated rooms. This state of affairs is 
 mostly found in those country homes where 
 guest chamber or parlor is opened only 
 for a funeral or the unexpected arrival of 
 the " City cousin." This cold, but STALE 
 air is often found in warerooms and cel- 
 lars. While I am writing this I have been 
 called to see a sturdy, outdoor man down 
 with a severe chill and a very bad cough. 
 No amount of cold air — the outdoor of the 
 [47] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 woods and fields — has any but the best 
 effect upon him. But yesterday he went 
 into his cellar and spent the day sorting 
 vegetables. The temperature of the cellar 
 air was not so low as that of the outside 
 air; but it was stale, unmoving and un- 
 moved. It at first irritated the mucous 
 membranes of his breathing machine and 
 the cold air passing over this inflamed area 
 resulted in disturbing the skin action, which 
 regulates the body temperature, and he is 
 in for a period of severe illness. 
 
 Had he opened the cellar windows and 
 door for a few hours before going there, no 
 amount of the outdoor air would have 
 affected him. 
 
 Remember that cold air which is stirring 
 cannot injure or affect anyone — it is always 
 beneficial. Under ordinary conditions it 
 cannot have any action on the healthy and 
 clean mucous membrane of the respiratory 
 tract below the trachea or largest bronchi, 
 because it will be warmed before it reaches it. 
 
 There is no necessity of worrying about 
 [48] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 mechanical ventilation and other schemes 
 to warm and circulate the air in bedrooms. 
 A window opened at the top about half- 
 way will give proper ventilation and the 
 air of the room warm it enough. 
 
 The disagreeable nasal tones, voices 
 which sound as though passed over a steel 
 rasp and the strident sibilations typical of 
 New England people, have come to be con- 
 sidered a national trait. The snuffling, 
 sniffling nose belonging to so many New 
 England people and their descendants, is 
 almost as disagreeable and disgusting as 
 that of the snuff -takers in the Georgia and 
 Carolina mountains. It is impossible for 
 persons afflicted with these mucous running 
 noses to ever breathe so as to be well. 
 
 A generation or two ago it was a com- 
 mon experience to see in the homes of 
 New England and the Middle West some 
 sort of an arrangement for inhaling the 
 fumes of heated tar, salt solutions, spray- 
 er nose-douching apparatus as supposed 
 remedies for inflamed air passages. Tin 
 [49] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 pans containing patent medicine cures 
 or Grandmother's Catarrh Remedy were 
 covered by the kitchen funnel, placed up- 
 side down, and each member of the family 
 from the baby to grandfather would take 
 turns fastening their inflamed nostrils to 
 the small end of the funnel. Later came 
 the cursed cocaine powders as a catarrh 
 cure, and the evil effects of this brain and 
 morality destroyer are still with us. 
 
 Superheated, irritated, nose and throat 
 would be wrapped in rolls of knit scarves 
 or mufflers — a good name that, for these 
 breathing preventives — and the victims go 
 out into the chilling rain or sleet. The 
 nostrils were left partly free; just enough 
 for the half-expired air to freeze on the 
 muffler so that every intake of air passed 
 over a miniature frozen waterfall, grabbed 
 all grippe and pneumonia germs in the sur- 
 rounding air, and these were sneezed or 
 coughed into the lungs of others. 
 
 This bundling of nose and covering of 
 throat caused the mucous membranes of 
 [50] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 throat and nose to become an active bed 
 for disease germs. The protective cells 
 were deadened, dried up in the nose or else 
 rested in the bronchial tubes and the inno- 
 cent climate blamed for the catarrhal state 
 of the New Englanders. 
 
 It was, and is now, individual protection 
 absolutely neglected through ignorance of 
 the methods of body preparation, which 
 causes epidemics of grippe, influenza, pneu- 
 monia and catarrh. 
 
 The injurious effects of not knowing how 
 to breathe correctly have left anatomical 
 obstructions in nose and throat which pre- 
 vent any efficient breathing in these in- 
 dividuals. All these conditions can be rec- 
 tified and, in children, prevented. 
 
 Now let me repeat: All defects in the 
 air passages, as well as the unphysiologic 
 conditions arising from them, must be cor- 
 rected before one can breathe and be well. 
 
 Starting from the nostrils we find at the 
 upper end of the internal nose, adenoids or 
 
 [31] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 little wart-like growths. These generally 
 are the effects of neglected " colds in the 
 head " in the infant or child plus the irri- 
 tating methods of treating them. 
 
 Further back is the uvula or soft palate 
 — ^that little tassel of flesh which so often 
 tickles the roof of your mouth or slaps the 
 tonsils. This soft palate, as you know, can 
 be seen by looking down the mouth. It 
 may be too long, and dropping down back 
 of the hard palate causes an irritation 
 which gives you that little hacking, cough- 
 ing attempt to clear the throat which, of 
 course, only adds to the trouble. 
 
 The ordinary elongation of this tickler 
 in the adult, due to too cold air reaching 
 it or to being overworked and over-douched 
 by a night's " good time," will shrink or 
 return to its normal size if left alone. But 
 not if it is constantly irritated, for then it 
 loses its tone and will hang as a very an- 
 noying block to any and all attempts to 
 breathe correctly — or rather any attempt to 
 get the full benefit of breathing properly. 
 [52] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 This soft palate is a hang-over from the 
 time we had to breathe through gills — 
 when we were pollywogs or some other kind 
 of water wigglers. At present it is of use 
 to us as a push-button warning us of some 
 inflammation in or around the air passages 
 — inflammation of the pharynx for ex- 
 ample. Every time such a condition exists 
 the palate buzzes, producing a peculiar, 
 insistent throat cough: a "front, there!" 
 call. 
 
 Then there are those much-abused ton- 
 sils; the armored and armed guardians of 
 the throat. They have been cut, slashed, 
 and not infrequently poured out life's 
 blood — for they can do that. They have 
 been burnt, seared by hot irons, scarred 
 by caustics and cautery or else driven to 
 pus-making, through injurious gargles and 
 washes. But happily peace has been de- 
 clared and the sanguineous war against the 
 innocent tonsil is now a matter of recent 
 medical history. 
 
 Man's best guide and protector to him 
 [53] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 who breathes right, the tonsils, have been 
 tortured and denied and many throats to- 
 day lack protection from the germs of air- 
 born diseases. 
 
 Unless the tonsils are intact, clean and 
 healthy, you never can breathe correctly 
 and eifectively. 
 
 Here is the point: By letting them alone, 
 washing them only with plain water, the 
 habit of proper breathing will keep them 
 in a healthy state. Then they will watch 
 and guard the throat's intake, for the ton- 
 sils manufacture material which pours out 
 enemies to the germs of grippe, pneumonia 
 and other air-born microbes. 
 
 When palate, nose or tonsils are affected 
 in any way they cause that disagreeable 
 and injurious method of getting air into 
 the lungs — mouth-breathing. No matter 
 how careful you are to avoid those things 
 and habits you know to be harmful to 
 health, if you breathe through your mouth 
 it is only a matter of time when you are 
 down with some sort of " bad cold," and a 
 . [54] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 bad cold may be the forerunner of a deadly 
 affection. 
 
 The mouth was not intended to take in 
 air. It has enough to do without taking 
 on extra and uncongenial duties. One 
 could eat through the nose with just 
 as much reason as breathe through the 
 mouth. Only as a reserve entrance and 
 exit in extreme efforts of respiration and 
 emergencies should the mouth be used for 
 breathing. The lining of the nose and 
 air passages is protected by a membrane 
 which warms and filters the air — the mouth 
 is not so lined. This is the reason lips and 
 mouth become dry and crack when you 
 breathe through them. In a healthy state 
 the nose and other air passages prevent 
 living germs, such as those of grippe, from 
 becoming active; the mouth never. If you 
 breathe through your mouth ever so 
 slightly while in a crowded hall, theater, 
 trolley, subway or anywhere people are 
 throwing off disease germs, you run a risk 
 of getting into some serious bodily trouble. 
 [55] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 If your true breathing tubes are not abso- 
 lutely clean and in a healthy state there is 
 also serious danger. 
 
 Children, taken among all sorts and 
 kinds of people or among other children, 
 are always in danger if there is the slightest 
 nose obstruction or if they have the habit 
 of breathing through the mouth.- 
 
 Adenoids are the principal obstruction 
 found in children's air passages. If your 
 child sleeps with its mouth open, if it 
 snuffles, if it sometimes becomes expres- 
 sionless, take it to your doctor or to a 
 specialist. There is no excuse or sympathy 
 for the mother who lets her child grow up 
 with health-destroying adenoids. Expense 
 is no excuse, because the adenoids will be 
 removed in a few moments at any hospital. 
 The little operation is free from all danger 
 and will be done without cost for those 
 unable to pay. 
 
 Faulty breathing has been the real cause 
 of many deaths in children, although the 
 [56] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 trouble has been given another name or 
 names. 
 
 Never use a hairpin or any harsh instru- 
 ment in trying to clean the baby's or child's 
 nose. A soft cloth dipped in warm water 
 is all that is needed. Again, let me em- 
 phasize, repeat, for all mothers, everybody, 
 never use salt solutions in nose or throat. 
 
 No child or adult ever recovered from 
 the grippe or pneumonia who did not live 
 Vvdth some of their after-effects — generally 
 nervous troubles. So do not let yourself 
 or your child ever be in such a condition 
 that the germs of these destructive diseases 
 can set up a lively colony in its body or 
 yours. You cannot avoid these germs, but 
 you can make your body and your child's 
 immune to them. 
 
 No child that is allowed to continue the 
 mouth-breathing habit ever can develop its 
 latent powers. A youth or girl who 
 breathes through the mouth never can 
 obtain that health which means immunity 
 to disease. 
 
 [57] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 Breathing through the mouth means, for 
 the baby, a dried and ever parched mouth. 
 This irritates and prevents it from properly 
 nursing or taking the bottle. It alters the 
 shape of the mouth, twists it all awry, changes 
 the expression of the face as it grows and 
 forces teeth out of alignment. Many girls 
 have to go to the dentist because, as babies, 
 they were allowed to lie on their backs and 
 with open mouths try to take in and expel 
 air intended to go through passages made 
 for this express purpose. Many boys, of 
 course, are in the same need of dental at- 
 tention, but cosmetic appeals do not affect 
 them. But put it on a big chest appeal 
 basis and they will readily endure the 
 imaginary tortures of the dentist's chair. 
 
 Your child will not have adenoids if it 
 is started right in breathing habits. If 
 necessary put a little piece of surgeon's 
 plaster over the tiny lips, but stay always 
 by the child. Mother's love and care will 
 do all this and more when she knows the 
 necessity and reason. While holding the 
 [58] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 baby if it WILL keep its mouth open, 
 place your gentle hand over the lips. Pinch 
 the nostrils very gently for a moment until 
 you feel a tiny pressure, then relieve at 
 once. The child will give a little snort. 
 These methods will soon teach it to use 
 the nose and then it will commence to 
 breathe right. 
 
 The child should rest so there will be no 
 bend or curve of the neck. That is, the 
 breathing pipes should have no stretching 
 or bending. 
 
 Unless the teeth in the young and adult 
 are regular — that is unless the jaws come 
 together so that upper and lower teeth 
 meet in perfect alignment, such persons 
 cannot be taught successfully the methods 
 of right breathing. The teeth must be 
 the first thing to correct after being assured 
 that the nose is clear of all obstructions. 
 
 No matter if there is occasional throat 
 irritation, sometimes a soreness and en- 
 larged tonsils, in the young person. In the 
 adolescent almost always there will be 
 [59] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 temporary enlargement — blood engorge- 
 ment — of the tonsils. A few weeks of 
 proper breathing will correct these condi- 
 tions. This is one of the remarkable re- 
 sults of knowing how to breathe right — 
 nature corrects these temporary faults just 
 as soon as you give her the opportunity. 
 
 To form the habit of correct breathing 
 so that from conscious effort it becomes a 
 natural and unconscious act, requires pa- 
 tience, practice and posture. 
 
 As I shall have something to say about 
 clothes and the way to wear them it is only 
 necessary to mention here the importance 
 of freedom for the neck and its vital blood- 
 vessels and nerves. 
 
 Do not wear tight neckwear if you want 
 to get the benefit of right breathing. Have 
 no pressure upon or around the neck if you 
 want to think to the best of your ability. The 
 ability to think depends upon the amount 
 and quality of blood circulating in the 
 brain. Any pressure on the vessels coming 
 and going to the brain affects the amount 
 [60] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 and strength of the blood stream. It also 
 affects the quality of the blood because it 
 cannot receive the benefits of breathing to 
 the full. And these conditions working to- 
 gether, of course, react upon the nervous 
 system. If your nervous system is im- 
 paired you never can learn to breathe right. 
 
 Do not muffle your throat. Give it air. 
 Let the breezes blow around it. If you are 
 a girl or woman and must wear furs in 
 mild or warm weather, put them around 
 the ankle. Anyway, they will be more 
 noticeable there. Put something warm 
 around the ankles and upon the feet, but 
 don't bake the warm blood trying to get 
 to the brain. When I see bare or thinly- 
 clad ankles trying to keep from being dis- 
 located while held up by distorting high 
 heels, inches deep in snow or slush, I 
 wonder if the pressed and muffled arterial 
 flow really could injure the brain of the 
 woman. I wonder! And so do all intelli- 
 gent men and women. 
 
 You cannot do these fashionable stunts 
 
 [61] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 and derive any material benefit from the 
 following instructions of how to get pure 
 air into the lungs and tissues. 
 
 Head up, shoulders back while walking 
 or sitting, is the first thing to keep ever 
 on your mind. If you have started your 
 spinal column right in the morning, this 
 attitude will be adopted naturally after a 
 little practice. The air passages having 
 been cleaned for the day, take deep ii I ala- 
 tions wherever and whenever possible. Do 
 this for a few moments before luncheon or 
 dinner in air that is moving. Do it before 
 climbing stairways, but not while climbing. 
 
 Fill your lungs, hold your breath for a 
 moment, then expel the air. You should 
 do this until you feel that the collar-bone 
 has been moving, the lower ribs make you 
 know they are all there. 
 
 These exercises are for any time you 
 have the moment's opportunity and the 
 fresh air. Not necessarily out of doors, 
 anywhere there is absence of crowds and 
 air from outside gets in. I knew a young 
 [62] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 man employed by a packing house who 
 used to have a few spare moments in the 
 cold storage room. He thought the air 
 there was fresh — it was. He exercised to 
 enlarge his chest. He kept up the exer- 
 cises in this cold storage room for several 
 weeks. Now he is in cold storage for 
 good. 
 
 After a few weeks' practice the nerve 
 centers which control the muscular move- 
 ments of breathing " get the habit." When 
 this point is reached you will feel at in- 
 tervals a half -conscious impulse to fill your 
 lungs. There comes a feeling of air hun- 
 ger and you satisfy it. As this state is 
 approached you may start the real develop- 
 ment of chest and a shapely and useful 
 abdomen. We shall see how, later on. 
 
 When walking, clasp your hands behind 
 your back, bringing the shoulders taut. 
 No deep breathing now; just brisk walk- 
 ing, breathing naturally; that is without 
 effort. In this position of arms and shoul- 
 ders any heaving motion of chest and 
 [63] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 abdomen is liable to overstretch or strain 
 chest muscles — a condition to avoid. 
 
 When you are in a crowded place, 
 breathe lightly; do not try any lung ex- 
 pansion is what I mean. Wait until you 
 get out in the open. Always walk in the 
 open air after being in crowded places. 
 I realize that this advice sounds rather 
 ridiculous to those who attend theaters and 
 many social functions; but it is the prin- 
 ciple I want to show — the reason. 
 
 You must find some way as soon as con- 
 venient to snort out, or, in the case of our 
 gentle companions, to consciously exhale 
 the by-products of the dust and emanations 
 you have partly inhaled. Do it as soon as 
 you reach your sleeping-room and have 
 bodily freedom. Remember that it is of 
 great importance, this getting out of your 
 lungs the effects of the air you have been 
 taking in. I purposely harp upon this fact 
 because it is the basis for obtaining self- 
 protection from the germs always around 
 us. 
 
 [64] 
 
THINGS THAT PREVENT PROPER BREATHING 
 
 If you have been traveling in railway 
 coaches you should, as soon as possible, 
 clean the nose and upper air passages with 
 warm water — nothing else. After this 
 necessary hygienic procedure breathe fresh 
 air according to the instructions given 
 above. If it has been a night in the sleeper 
 the same rules apply, only they must be 
 more rigidly followed. 
 
 You never know just what kind of 
 germs or in what quantity you have taken 
 into the air passages, and the only safe way 
 is to clear them out and replace them by 
 their mortal enemy: fresh air passing over 
 all the mucous surfaces and getting into 
 the furthermost lung cell. It really 
 amounts to house cleaning. Each lung cell 
 is a separate room where possibly lodges 
 poisonous material for your blood to ab- 
 sorb unless the rooms are swept clean to 
 the smallest corner. 
 
 You cannot get the full benefit of golf 
 or other general outdoor sport unless you 
 have started every rib hinge, spine joint, 
 [65] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 lung cell, by a 'few moments of deep 
 breathing before the game. This done, 
 every little physical eifort and slight ex- 
 ertion in the open is multiplied in its effect 
 by the receptive state of organs and vessels. 
 Especially valuable is this method to those 
 of sluggish livers or lazy kidneys. 
 
 [66] 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 SNORING— THE CAUSES AND 
 CURES 
 
 Snoring is due to some interference with 
 the air passages. It is frequently caused 
 by day breathing through the mouth. 
 Breathing through the mouth causes evap- 
 oration from the mucous membrane. This 
 means a dry mouth and during the night 
 the wind whistles over this dry surface, 
 which acts as a sounding-board. 
 
 Snoring may be due to neglected ade- 
 noids from childhood, the effects of a 
 chronic catarrh, which remains quiescent 
 during the active hours or one which has 
 been treated by chemicals and drugs, too 
 much dinner or too many drinks plus a 
 low tone of the nervous control over breath- 
 ing muscles. 
 
 Of course the snorer does not breathe 
 
 [67] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 right while sleeping or during his conscious 
 hours. There are those who whistle like 
 ships which pass in the night, whose air 
 passages during the day are unobstructed 
 and unaffected in any way. But they do 
 not breathe in the right way during the 
 day, and this faulty breathing has so irri- 
 tated the mucous membranes that through- 
 out the night they pour out a mucilaginous 
 material over and through which the ex- 
 piring air has to make its noisy way. 
 
 Snoring is always a sign that the indi- 
 vidual is wasting energy; that the life-pro- 
 longing oxygen neither gets in nor out 
 without some kind of obstruction or with- 
 out being mixed with mucous and delete- 
 rious moistures. 
 
 Snoring is a sound picture of the snor- 
 er's life; his early neglect, bad air through- 
 out the day, over-indulgence in eating and 
 drinking, the body's struggle to recuperate 
 under difficulties, are some of the secrets 
 told by the sounds. 
 
 Some philosopher has said: "Let me 
 [68] 
 
SNORING THE CAUSES AND CURES 
 
 know what a man eats and I will tell you 
 what he is." Let me hear an adult snore 
 and I will tell you what that person has 
 been, is and will be; for out of the mouths 
 of snorers gurgles the truth. 
 
 Clown — " that such a one, and such a one, were 
 past cure of the things you wot of, unless they 
 keep a very good diet." — Measure for Measure. 
 
 The vigorous snorer is dangerous be- 
 cause he is a veritable fountain of a germ- 
 scatterer. He is a human sprayer of mi- 
 crobes held in vaporous solutions which 
 are being blown into the surrounding at- 
 mosphere. Constantly, rhythmically, dur- 
 ing the hours of night the poisonous jets 
 jeopardize the health of all near him. 
 When a man sneezes or coughs near you 
 you can get away, blow your nose, then 
 exhale through it and follow it up by an 
 exhalation through the mouth — but only 
 once or twice through the mouth. 
 
 But think of sleeping in the same car, 
 house or stateroom with one of these human 
 [69] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 nightly poison sprayers! Because we have 
 been in the habit of doing all these un- 
 hygienic things is the cause for the rapidity 
 of the spread of grippe, pneumonia and 
 other dangerous diseases which find en- 
 trance to the body through the air pas- 
 sages. In the times past it used to take 
 months for an epidemic of influenza to 
 travel. Now with our facilities for rapid 
 traveling the germs are up-to-date and 
 follow as do mail and spraying travelers. 
 
 All dangers have their warnings. When 
 the snorer starts in for his night's work 
 get away from his presence at once — far 
 away. Go to the smoking-room if travel- 
 ing on land or water. If you are of the 
 sort or sex which do not smoke get into the 
 fresh air somehow. If in hotel or house 
 demand a room far from the fountain's 
 spray; then close the transom and open 
 the window. 
 
 The deep, booming snore is a warning 
 to the snorer and his friends that all is 
 [70] 
 
SNORING THE CAUSES AND CURES 
 
 not quite right with him — or her — if it is 
 9. stout individual. 
 
 This kind of snoring is a possible fore- 
 runner of apoplexy, heart trouble, harden- 
 ing arteries, kidney congestion. Sometimes 
 such a snoring as these stout individuals 
 render can be scarcely distinguished from 
 the stertorous breathing in apoplectic at- 
 tacks. It so closely simulates the latter 
 that it shows a congested state of blood- 
 vessels. 
 
 And right here, before it slips my mind, 
 I want to say to all mothers, that fre- 
 quently snoring in children is due to con- 
 stipation, this latter condition producing a 
 congested state of the blood-vessels. 
 
 The mistake is too often made of be- 
 lieving that because a child is regular in 
 its habits of bowel evacuation, it is never 
 constipated. In spite of what you think 
 is a cleared-out lower bowel, there may 
 remain hidden and packed in its many 
 folds, material which causes a slight irri- 
 tation and congestion. If the child WILL 
 [71] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 breathe through the mouth while sleeping 
 it is always well to look to this bowel 
 matter. 
 
 Now, if you have taught and watched 
 the child to breathe right; if it sleeps in 
 a room where fresh air constantly circu- 
 lates, the oxygenated blood will reach the 
 lower bowel and keep it free. Do not let 
 the child hurry through the breathing ex- 
 ercises; that is, breathe rapidly as they 
 are wont to do in order to finish and get 
 away. Patience and watching that the 
 breathing is deep and SLOW is the way 
 to start the child right. 
 
 If your boy is inclined to snore lightly 
 you may be certain that he partly breathes 
 through his mouth during the daytime, 
 especially after physical exercise and hearty 
 play. After a long run or any period of 
 violent exertion, it is natural for man to 
 assist the lungs and heart by taking air 
 through the mouth as an adjunct to the 
 nasal pass. But such a practice should last 
 only for a few minutes. If the boy cannot 
 [72] 
 
SNORING THE CAUSES AND CURES 
 
 keep his mind upon this fact then teach 
 him to keep his hand over his mouth each 
 time until the habit of tightly closing it 
 becomes an involuntary habit. 
 
 Let the boy see how much greater his 
 chest heaves and enlarges, how the ribs 
 stand out when he breathes only through 
 his nose, and he will at once adopt a 
 proper breathing method. All boys arie 
 from Missouri — ^they want to be shown. 
 
 In a girl, over-play, undue excitement 
 affecting the nervous organization, cause 
 relaxation of the palate and disturbances 
 of the tonsils. In this condition when she 
 sleeps, there is temporary obstruction of 
 the intake and outgo of air and the fizzle 
 snore is the result. 
 
 In the majority of cases the habit of 
 snoring is due to sleeping on the back. 
 In this unnatural sleeping position the 
 soft palate, tongue, tonsils, relaxed and 
 fatigued, slip down and backward. The 
 lower jaw naturally drops, leaving a par- 
 tially or completely open mouth. Also the 
 [73] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 head is thrown somewhat back, stretching 
 the neck and jaw muscles, which aids in 
 keeping the jaws apart. All these unnat- 
 ural conditions add to whatever other ob- 
 stacles exist: adenoids, dry mouth, cindered 
 and dusted nostrils. 
 
 Did you ever see a dog sleep lying 
 straight upon its back, neck out, head 
 back? Did you ever see a horse, cow, hen, 
 frog; any animal, sleep on its back? If 
 you find your canary, in the morning, lying 
 on its back, you know he is no more a 
 singing canary. Turn a turtle upon its 
 back and see it try to breathe through its 
 mouth; about the only way it can breathe 
 in that position and not very successfully 
 then. Hypnotize a fowl and place it upon 
 its back and watch it gasp for air. 
 
 No animal, except man, sleeps upon its 
 back. And no man but the feather-bed 
 man even attempts it. During the period 
 the young and the adolescent are acquiring 
 this bad habit, nature warns them by the 
 dreams she sends; night terrors in the very 
 [74] 
 
SNORING THE CAUSES AND CURES 
 
 young, weakening dreams in the youth, and 
 when the grown will not learn better, by 
 snoring nightmares. 
 
 No animal ever sleeps upon its back ex- 
 cept in its last sleep. Coil up or else sleep 
 upon your side. Get back to nature; don't 
 put nature upon her back. 
 
 Assuming you have attended to the 
 health and purity of all the air passages, 
 the next thing to do is to stop the habit of 
 sleeping on the back if you wish to cure 
 yourself of snoring. There are various 
 methods you may use. One of the best is 
 to sleep upon a hard mattress. It is nat- 
 ural for one to take a position on one's 
 back when the body sinks into a soft and 
 deep nest, whose sides rise, preventing easy 
 turning or rolling during the night. The 
 instinct to roll over several times during 
 the night is nature's way of having you do 
 some breathing through the skin. 
 
 Next to accustoming yourself to sleep 
 upon a hard mattress, the best way to stop 
 sleeping on the back is to tie a knotted 
 [75] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 towel around your waist. Tie the towel 
 so that the knot comes directly in the small 
 of the back. Then start in sleeping upon 
 the right side. If you get to sleep and 
 turn over on to your back the knot will 
 call your attention to the fact. I knew a 
 man who tried this method of breaking his 
 back habit, but it was too fixed in his 
 nature. The knot did not trouble him so 
 he used a chestnut burr in its place. It 
 did the trick. However, I do not recom- 
 mend this method as a rule. In some of 
 the old moss-back snorers it might be 
 efficacious as well as forceps upon the lips. 
 
 In most cases breaking this back-sleep- 
 ing habit will also correct the mouth- 
 breathing habit. But in rebellious cases 
 other means should be taken. Fasten over 
 the mouth one or two slips of surgeon's 
 plaster and stick to it; or better still let 
 the plaster stick to it. 
 
 The personal equation in mouth-breath- 
 ing is of great importance. No matter how 
 [76] 
 
SNORING THE CAUSES AND CURES 
 
 well developed your chest capacity, how 
 well you have opened the lower lung cells 
 by breathing exercises during the day, you 
 never can procure and secure complete 
 health if you breathe through your mouth 
 during the night. 
 
 Make it your paramount thought and 
 action to keep your mouth tightly closed 
 breathing involuntarily or voluntarily. 
 There is a lot of will power and memory 
 to be used here, but you can by constant 
 practice so drill the muscles and nerve im- 
 pulses that jaw and lips will tighten in- 
 stead of loosening under all kinds of 
 breathing efforts. 
 
 But, of course, the real secret is in start- 
 ing the child right in all these matters. It 
 is not at all a difficult matter unless you 
 consider watchfulness, patience and knowl- 
 edge of your child a difficult matter. 
 
 Many children, especially boys, acquire 
 the mouth-breathing habit through swim- 
 ming. Let boys and girls get all that is 
 possible out of this most beneficial sport 
 
 [77] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 and exercise, but teach and admonish them 
 that their chest development only can be 
 of value when the air for the lungs passes 
 in through the nostrils. 
 
 The adults of both sexes can stop the 
 mouth-breathing habit by remembering 
 these statements while bathing or swim- 
 ming. It is somewhat amusing to notice 
 how many people unconsciously breathe 
 through the mouth. Many, most of these 
 would resent any such charge, but watch 
 a friend after a short run for the car, a 
 hurried rush up the steps, after an excited 
 argument or while watching some interest- 
 ing scene at the theater. Eight out of ten 
 will be found taking in some air through 
 the mouth passages. 
 
 No wonder colds, catarrh, grippe, pneu- 
 monia, headaches and other microbic dis- 
 eases are always menacing us. Yet to one 
 who rigorously obeys the way we were in- 
 tended to breathe and eat, these infections 
 have no terror. 
 
 Lately there has been an odd sort of 
 [78] 
 
SNORING THE CAUSES AND CURES 
 
 mouth-breathing to be seen every day upon 
 the dusty and dirty roads; one which will 
 have injurious effects upon its victims un- 
 less it is stopped. 
 
 I refer to the mouth-breathing of the 
 ardent motorist; the man or woman de- 
 veloping incipient "speed mania." I have 
 seen the steering-wheel grasped by young 
 people who sat rigid, tense, open-eyed and 
 open-mouthed as they motored to the speed 
 danger point. 
 
 Such an attitude of strain is natural 
 under these conditions — a psychologic state 
 produced by kinetic forces. It belongs to 
 the mechanistic make-up of man. It is 
 the same psychic state caused by a new, 
 startling sight or sound. " She stood 
 staring, opened-mouthed," says the near 
 novelist. 
 
 So see to it that your mouth does not 
 take in sight, sound or air. You have eyes 
 for the sight, ears for the sound, nose for 
 the air, but the mouth is for the entrance 
 of food, the lips in a pretty girl — Well, 
 [79] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 sometimes for closing negative decisions, 
 sometimes for loving welcome. 
 
 But she who motors with open mouth 
 never will have moist and sweet lips to be 
 kissed. 
 
 Even if the teeth are in splendid con- 
 dition — a rare state to find among men and 
 boys — ^the intake of air passing over them 
 is liable to carry deleterious substances to 
 the throat and lungs. A form of catarrh 
 is due to this fact. Not all disagreeable 
 breaths come from unclean teeth and dis- 
 eased gums. Many come from a throat 
 lining encysted by decaying matter brought 
 there by mouth-breathing. 
 
 Overfat faces, pendent jaw flesh, heavy, 
 dragging - down chins, make mouth- 
 breathers. 
 
 But the remedy for these cases implies 
 methods which will reduce the whole body 
 flesh and will be considered under another 
 chapter. 
 
 [80] 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 BREATHING FOR BEAUTY- 
 BREATHING AND EATING 
 
 Red cheeks, plump and rounding curves, 
 symmetry, vitality and nervous poise are 
 states and conditions made and held from 
 what goes on INSIDE the body. Nothing 
 is true, lasting or beneficial to the body or 
 its beauty, to strength or health, that is ex- 
 ternally applied, except water. 
 
 This means electric massage, the pound- 
 ing of vibrators, flesh foods, " bust enlarg- 
 ers," hair restorers, complexion wafers or 
 v/ashes, fat eliminators and " nerve foods." 
 Electric massage and vibrations have their 
 places in certain forms of undevelopment 
 in the over-fat and those persons whose 
 initiative and will-power have to have some 
 form of external assistance. 
 
 All the other artificial methods men- 
 
 [81] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 tioned and those not mentioned are beauty 
 destroyers, deceivers — things to be abso- 
 lutely avoided. The reason is simple to 
 understand. There can take place no de- 
 velopment of any organ without that organ 
 getting a good supply of blood which is 
 rich in oxygen. You can enlarge a muscle 
 by massage or vibrations. True, this sort 
 of manipulation or mechanical exercise 
 sends blood to the organ or muscle, but 
 that blood is not rich in oxygen because 
 there goes no deep or extra breathing with 
 the operations. 
 
 You may eat according to some fad 
 rules, fast under ancient or modern regula- 
 tions, diet or stuff, eat nuts or chew red 
 beef, drink hot water in the morning, take 
 internal baths at night, and if you are not 
 injured by one or more of these foolish 
 fads, certainly never will derive any bene- 
 fit. Internal baths are as necessary as ex- 
 ternal, only they should be the real inter- 
 nal; that is the abdominal muscles should 
 squeeze and flush out the internal organs, 
 [82] 
 
BREATHING FOR BEAUTY 
 
 using the fluids and soap of the intestines 
 for this purpose. And as we shall see, 
 in doing this you are forced to take in a 
 lot of oxygen. 
 
 There are no such real things as " Flesh 
 foods," " Complexion foods " and the many 
 other claims of advertisers to sell you 
 beauty and health. Beauty and health are 
 not purchasable articles. They are pro- 
 curable conditions the ingredients of which 
 are manufactured in your own body, and 
 there are no patents registered for their 
 production. They might be called pro- 
 prietary products in so far as they belong 
 to your body exclusively. 
 
 Don't be fooled by believing that you 
 can get beauty and health by anything you 
 can put on or in the body — anything which 
 comes in a bottle or box. 
 
 The reason is that only the blood and its 
 
 many assistants, lymph, pancreas, spleen, 
 
 etc., can prepare food so that its various 
 
 separated ingredients go to the spot or 
 
 [83] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 spots where they are needed. The blood 
 cannot do this delicate chemical work un- 
 less it first gets its oxygen from the intake 
 tubes and can pick up and throw off all 
 the waste stuff. 
 
 And this means always, always, proper 
 breathing. Furthermore, you cannot attain 
 this state unless the diaphragm is fully de- 
 veloped and under voluntary control. 
 
 The young woman needs to follow, and 
 to follow carefully, the instructions now to 
 be given, if she wishes to become more 
 beautiful, to turn a commonplace appear- 
 ance into an attractive one and maintain 
 beauty and attractiveness for many years 
 — for all her years up to seventy. Oh, yes, 
 it can be and is done by those who know 
 how. 
 
 Having started to develop the chest and 
 strengthen the spine according to instruc- 
 tions given in a previous chapter, you must 
 now start to strengthen the diaphragm. 
 With many women this is a somewhat diffi- 
 cult matter to bring about because it neces- 
 [84] 
 
BREATHING FOU BEAUTY 
 
 sitates rigid adherence to freedom from all 
 pressure upon the body at certain intervals. 
 
 No waistbands; nothing on the body ex- 
 cept what rests upon the shoulders. If 
 you wear pajamas have the waist strings 
 as loose as possible. Better forego the 
 trousers, anyway. 
 
 Standing, heels together, raise your arms 
 straight above your head. Now bend from 
 the hips, knees rigid, bringing the arms 
 still extended toward the floor until the 
 fingers touch the carpet. 
 
 If you have not tried this or similar ex- 
 ercises it will be difficult at first. The 
 knees will try to bend, they will stretch 
 so you hear them in the stretching. But 
 if you are too knock-kneed — all women 
 are knock-kneed to a certain extent — this 
 exercise will help straighten the legs. You 
 must persist in this exercise for ten min- 
 utes. Try to reach the floor with your 
 fingers ten times each morning for the first 
 week or so. Then increase the number of 
 [85] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 times until you can bend easily twenty-five 
 times each morning. 
 
 During all these efforts the mouth must 
 be kept closed. Don't let it get the best 
 of you. When you find you cannot go on 
 without taking a mouthful of air, stop and 
 take in and blow out through the nostrils. 
 Then start again. After a week or so you 
 will find it a joyful thing to be able to 
 breathe right; to find your toes tingling 
 and cheeks red with pure blood. 
 
 Having, by this method, developed some 
 strength in the stomach muscles you must 
 commence to get voluntary control over 
 them. In bed upon your back with noth- 
 ing over you but a thin sheet, fix your 
 eyes and attention upon your abdomen — 
 stomach. Now start a movement of its 
 muscles — any kind of movement possible at 
 first. See if you can bring the contents of 
 the abdomen upwards, then force them 
 downwards. If so, wiggle your insides; 
 then toss them in one direction, then in 
 another, then from side to side. When 
 [86] 
 
BREATHING FOR BEAUTY 
 
 you discover you can control them in one 
 direction, practice that set of muscles. 
 Then try to get the muscles to twist and 
 turn another way. The point to reach is 
 that of controlling them in the same way 
 you do those of the arm or leg. WILL 
 the stomach muscles to do your bidding. 
 Of course it can be done and must be done 
 if you want a useful diaphragm — if you 
 want to breathe for beauty and health. 
 
 If you have not seen you have heard 
 of the Oriental stomach dancers; the real 
 ones, not those disgusting contortionists 
 seen on the Midways. One of the tricks 
 which is the cause of the wonderful beauty 
 of the Eastern girls, is the development of 
 their big breathing muscle — the diaphragm. 
 Through its action in drawing in large 
 quantities of fresh air and throwing out 
 waste material, these girls have a delicious 
 and fascinating complexion and skin, eyes 
 of desire and the grace and suppleness of 
 a fawn. They eat enormous quantities of 
 sweets, yet do not become corpulent as long 
 
 [87] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 as they keep up their dancing exercises. 
 True, they become awkward and fatty as 
 they grow old, but never would they reach 
 this state if they were allowed to get out 
 in the open and consume that large amount 
 of fresh air their breathing muscles would 
 draw in. 
 
 Keep up this stomach exercise through- 
 out your life. Naturally, as in any other 
 form of muscular development, when it 
 has reached commanding power only slight 
 exercises are necessary. Obviously, for 
 women this form of muscular development 
 of the abdomen is of greater importance 
 than for the ordinary man. After mater- 
 nity the muscles keep the woman in good 
 shape, during the child-bearing intervals 
 they not only act as a protective armor 
 but increase the amount of that oxygenized 
 blood so necessary for the well-being of 
 child and mother. 
 
 You simply HAVE to breathe right if 
 your diaphragm is big and strong. You 
 can't get away from it. 
 [ 88 ] 
 
BREATHING FOR BEAUTY 
 
 Breathe only through the nose when de- 
 veloping the stomach muscles and during 
 any and all kind of exercise. I shall not 
 repeat this absolutely necessary admonition 
 and commandment. Nothing but a dying 
 hen, and a human being whose air passages 
 are stopped up, ever breathes through the 
 mouth, and the latter is always dying by 
 inches; literally by inches. 
 
 Having obtained some control over the 
 muscles of the abdomen or stomach while 
 you are on your back in bed, you should 
 commence the same movements while 
 standing upright. In this position you 
 can accomplish much more than is possible 
 while lying on the back. 
 
 Upright, with hands passively hanging 
 by the side of the body, draw up the con- 
 tents of the abdomen until the latter looks 
 like a deep valley; as though everything 
 inside of you was up in the chest cavity. 
 Then push them down until you are laugh- 
 ingly and innocently ashamed of your pro- 
 truding belly. Draw up, push down, wig- 
 [89] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 gle, wobble, twist, turn all your insides 
 over and around. At least that is the feel- 
 ing you should have. 
 
 When you have this will power over the 
 abdominal muscles and contents, constipa- 
 tion, that curse to American girls and 
 women, will never be your lot. Muddy 
 complexions, headaches, rushes and flushes, 
 nervousness due to indigestion and neuras- 
 thenia caused by body poisons and other 
 troubles so distressing to many women, will 
 be only hearsay to you. And mind you; 
 this means for life; and life is one long 
 pean of joy under such conditions. 
 
 You see all this abdominal control is 
 really internal massage; the way a horse 
 or dog, any animal, keeps in perfect health. 
 Animals get this internal exercise by roll- 
 ing. When we went upon all-fours that 
 is the way we kept clean inside. But since 
 we have learned to walk upright the ab- 
 dominal contents are not in the position to 
 get much benefit by rolling. The recent 
 promoters of this form of exercise for 
 [90] 
 
BREATHING FOR BEAUTY 
 
 women had the right idea. The only fault 
 with it was that it was about a million 
 years behind our present body demands. 
 
 Developing the diaphragm means no 
 more taking of cathartics or laxatives; that 
 nothing deleterious can remain in the in- 
 testines or other internal organs. It all 
 means a proper and very active blood cir- 
 culation through right breathing, which 
 means HEALTH. 
 
 The blood-making spleen sends out that 
 rich material which causes your cheeks to 
 be red and ruddy; the other blood-making 
 cells in the marrow of the bones voraciously 
 grab the oxygen the diaphragm draws in. 
 This is the whole secret for all these ex- 
 ercises and muscular development. They 
 make you, not merely cause you, to breathe 
 right and all the internal organs get the 
 benefit of this right way of breathing. 
 
 They do not get this benefit by the ordi- 
 nary, everyday way of breathing, and this 
 is why so many men and women, when they 
 reach middle age, have stiffened intestines, 
 [91] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 hardening of the Hver, inelastic arteries and 
 veins, cold feet and hands, indigestion and 
 nervous dispositions — in fact why so many 
 individuals commence to deteriorate at a 
 period in life when they should and can 
 be in the best of physical and mental shape. 
 
 If your wife has cold feet, don't try for a 
 divorce, but have her commence the exercises 
 advised, and shut her out of the house until 
 she has walked five miles a day with mouth 
 shut and nostrils open. Proper breathing 
 habits will put happiness into any home. 
 Many a man walks home with open mouth 
 trying to breathe down a tell-tale odor. 
 It's not the way. Let the air pass through 
 the nostrils and be warmed by the inner 
 air passages and upon its return it will dis- 
 guise the enemy as far as such an enemy 
 can be disguised. Anyway, the oxygen 
 taken in the proper way will oxidize the 
 alcohol, and that helps some. 
 
 Mere breathing, deep breathing just to 
 develop a big chest capacity, is valueless 
 unless the inhaled air can reach every- 
 [92] 
 
BREATHING FOR BEAUTY 
 
 where — every tiny cell in the body. The 
 man with a big chest is not any better off 
 than a man with an average size lung box 
 if the latter uses his breathing organs so as 
 to get the oxygen throughout his body. A 
 man may, by certain forms of exercise, 
 have an exhibition chest, but no life-pro- 
 longing breathing organs. That is, his 
 diaphragm may remain undeveloped, or he 
 may, in ordinary work, breathe partly 
 through his mouth. 
 
 Obviously, the greater chest capacity the 
 greater endurance and immunity from dis- 
 ease if the possessor of this lung power 
 knows how to use it. He generally does 
 know how to use it if it is a self -developed 
 chest. But there are individuals born with 
 fine lung power who never get its full 
 power. It is the old story; that for which 
 a man strives and labors is valued and used 
 to its best advantage; that which comes 
 without individual effort is neglected and 
 its value unrecognized. 
 
 There is no Royal road to health any 
 [93] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 more than there is a Royal road to any 
 kind of lasting achievement. Understand- 
 ing, persistence, work, practice in breath- 
 ing is as necessary as in any other accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 Before you dress to go to a dance or a 
 dinner, no matter if you have been through 
 this diaphragm exercise in the morning, go 
 at it again. Clear out the ashes and cin- 
 ders in the body which have accumulated 
 throughout the day. Make as much room 
 for air and food as possible, for you will 
 be somewhat restricted in breathing by the 
 fashionable costume dictated by convention. 
 And with us convention in this matter is 
 limited to no class. 
 
 Upon your return from the evening's 
 pleasures remove all tight and confining 
 clothing, stretch every inch of your body 
 and EXHALE with vigor and inhale with 
 ease. Do not do any more. Get into bed 
 and let the food be ground up, separated, 
 and its valuable building stuffs go to their 
 places. 
 
 [94] 
 
BREATHING FOR BEAUTY 
 
 But in the morning! Big exercises for 
 the stomach if you have dined well the 
 night before or danced long and merrily. 
 If your head aches, your mouth feels stuffy, 
 stand before the open window and take 
 the chest-breathing exercises. But better 
 still, after this practice, get out into the 
 open air and breathe, breathe deeply and 
 keep it up. 
 
 There is not a man or woman who can- 
 not find some period in the day during 
 which they can get fresh air into their sys- 
 tems. Take for instance the woman or 
 man who has to toil daily between walls 
 and under roofs. Consider your own work 
 and how you avoid fresh air in getting to 
 it. You may live some distance from your 
 place of work which compels you to take 
 trolleys or subways, tunnels or elevated. 
 In rushing from workroom or office direct 
 to the cars you believe you are saving time. 
 For the day; yes, for the month, probably; 
 for the length of your life and for the 
 continuance of your health — NO. You 
 [95] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 are shortening your time upon this earth; 
 shortening its usefulness if not its absolute 
 activity. And it is such a simple matter 
 to avoid this threatening state of affairs — 
 and it doesn't cost a cent. 
 
 Coming from your work, walk in the 
 fresh air, breathing deeply. Walk for five 
 or ten blocks, then take your car. Get 
 oif five or ten blocks from your destination 
 and walk there, breathing deeply. 
 
 You see the trick? By breathing for ten 
 or fifteen minutes before you get into the 
 cars you have cleared the nasal passages 
 and got rid of all the by-products of the 
 day's intake. If there are disease germs — 
 and there are bound to be — coughed or 
 floating around in the crowded car, they 
 can find no hearty welcome or lodging 
 places in your system. But a lot may 
 hang around the entrances of the breathing 
 apparatus and bring you down with a 
 " bad cold " if you go direct from this 
 car atmosphere to your home. Getting 
 [96] 
 
BREATHING FOR BEAUTY 
 
 out and walking, exhaling forcibly for a 
 few times, then breathing deeply, making 
 that diaphragm pinch corset or waistband, 
 belt in man, discom-ages these waiting 
 germs, and you may safely go your way 
 along a healthy life. And you will not 
 carry any infection home to the babies or 
 children — this is worth considering. 
 
 In the mornings on the way to your 
 work, carry out the same method of keep- 
 ing free from disease and from contract- 
 ing colds. The kinds of colds you get 
 from neglect of breathing away microbes, 
 kill thousands of people every day — 
 healthy, strong people, too; just those who 
 neglect or do not understand the value of 
 breathing so as to be immune. 
 
 And what splendid opportunities for ob- 
 taining and retaining health that person 
 has who has to journey daily across rivers 
 and bays. Why, ten minutes on a ferry 
 boat, out in the open, breathing to the full, 
 will make you FEEL life. Little worries 
 *' the blues," indecision, fog on the brain, 
 
 [97] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 all, all will be driven away by a copious 
 dose of oxygen. Just as a fresh wind will 
 clear away fog, by bringing refreshing at- 
 mosphere, clear skies and bright sun, so 
 will draughts of oxygen affect the mind 
 and body. And the causes for all this are 
 tangible: chemical, physical and physio- 
 logical, acting together under a law of 
 nature. 
 
 The person who habitually goes by the 
 way of underground cars, when he or she 
 can go in the fresh air and sunlight, rain 
 and snow, scarcely deserves sympathy, and, 
 in all conscience, he will need sympathy and 
 care in later life. 
 
 Takes time? Of course it takes time. 
 Every worth-while growing thing in this 
 world takes time. Those things which 
 hurry in growth die in a hurry. The pop- 
 lar hurries up and is a soft, useless tree. 
 The oak takes a very long time to breathe 
 and grow, but it cannot be blown down, 
 rooted up, and its wood is of great value 
 to man. 
 
 [98] 
 
BREATHING FOR BEAUTY 
 
 To get up a half -hour earlier in order 
 to walk and breathe deeply robs you of 
 necessary sleep? Not a bit of it. The 
 benefit to your whole body and mind of this 
 half-hour of walking and air feeding is 
 worth more to you than two hours' sleep. 
 Again, the air food makes you sleep better, 
 and seven hours' of sound sleep is far bet- 
 ter than ten hours of restless snoozing. 
 
 The same with a dinner half an hour 
 later than you have been accustomed to. 
 The walk, air-burning up of dead material 
 in your system, is worth more than your 
 dinner. For, if you have not breathed in 
 pure air before eating you will only have 
 an increase in the clogging of your pipes. 
 Get your dinner, of course, but make eating 
 and sleeping wait upon reason and rule for 
 lasting health. 
 
 [99] 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 BREATHING THROUGH THE 
 
 SKIN NECESSARY FOR 
 
 HEALTH 
 
 Many people go through life in a state 
 of partial poisoning because their skins 
 cannot breathe readily and constantly. 
 
 These people are the neurasthenics, the 
 ever-complaining, the easily exhausted, the 
 ambitious who have not the lasting powers 
 to carry out the steadfast labors necessary 
 to accomplish their ends, the persons who 
 have a " three-o'clock fatigue " and a four- 
 o'clock cocktail. 
 
 These are conditions showing wrong or 
 faulty breathing habits of the skin, even if 
 chest and lung exercises are kept up daily. 
 The pores and little sweat glands are not 
 in that natural, healthy state which permits 
 a constant breathing out of toxic material, 
 [ 100 ] 
 
BREATHING THROUGH THE SKIN 
 
 nor can the skin get the tonic effect due to 
 air constantly circulating around it. 
 
 Every little pore has its set of tiny 
 nerve endings. These are stimulated by 
 the circulating air, and thus cause the 
 sweat glands to operate. When these skin 
 pores are closed to the air, good skin- 
 breathing is impossible. 
 
 Those persons who are wanting in 
 energy through faulty skin-breathing fully 
 believe they are careful in the matter of 
 cleanliness and bathing. So they are, often 
 altogether too careful in the wrong way. 
 
 The trouble is they do too much soaping 
 and scrubbing of the skin. With women 
 this soaping is caused by the fear of per- 
 spiration odors. The odor of a healthy 
 skin is a very pleasing odor, as any mother 
 knows when snuggling her baby. It means 
 the skin is pliable, soft and exuding the 
 natural skin pomade. The over-washed, 
 dried skin has a displeasing odor. 
 
 Fresh water taken into the body and 
 fresh water poured over the body, keeps 
 [101] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 the skin sweet and active — always fit to 
 breathe. 
 
 A pint or two of fluid containing poisons 
 and harmless dead stuff are exuded and 
 exhaled from the skin every twenty-four 
 hours. The process goes on slowly and 
 continuously and, except during copious 
 perspiring, is a function unconsciously ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 We do not fully realize the great extent of 
 this breathing of the skin except in cases of 
 illness where the skin becomes dried or over- 
 heated. The hot breath, headache, pains 
 all over the body, tell us that something 
 is wrong with the body or its functions. 
 The skin has stopped breathing; that is all, 
 but it means irreparable injury to kidneys 
 or liver if it continues. We all know, how- 
 ever, that many dangerous crises are passed 
 when the skin commences to pour out mois- 
 ture — to get back to its normal breathing 
 condition. This is the time when the doctor 
 leaves the patient with hope, and not before. 
 
 To know how to breathe through the 
 [ 102 ] 
 
BREATHING THROUGH THE SKIN 
 
 skin means simply this: Keeping the skin 
 in such a healthy condition that it can 
 throw off fluid upon the least physical ex- 
 ertion. Not merely from the trunk of the 
 body, but from the arms, feet, nose, neck. 
 If it can always do this one may be certain 
 that the unconscious breathing of the 
 body's whole outer surface is constant. 
 
 Every time you practice deep breathing 
 or take in the rejuvenating air, walking in 
 the wide open or standing at the opened 
 window, you force pressure against the 
 skin from the inside as well as from the 
 outside. 
 
 This pressure expands the big and little 
 folds of the skin; stretches it just enough 
 to act upon the pores. By this mechanical 
 movement you add just so much more 
 force and energy to the whole human ma- 
 chine. 
 
 There are a few habits and customs 
 
 which are too common and which prevent 
 
 proper breathing through the skin. One 
 
 of them, which I have casually mentioned, 
 
 [ 103 ] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 is the use of too much soap and daily soap- 
 ing with hot water. Soap only should be 
 used to wash off external dirt and grime. 
 
 After vigorous exercise the sweat of the 
 body should be washed off either by cold 
 or tepid water. The same means should 
 be used in washing off the salt grains after 
 a sea bath. 
 
 To use soap of any kind in the daily 
 bath is injurious. It washes off the 
 natural skin ointment, irritates the pores 
 and interferes with their activities. Many 
 cases of that distressing and embarrassing 
 affection called hives are due to too fre- 
 quent soaping in washing off the perspira- 
 tion of a summer's day. 
 
 Hives are protests against stopping good 
 skin-breathing. When you are troubled by 
 this harmless but exceedingly annoying af- 
 fection, just give the skin a wash with cool 
 water in which a little bicarbonate of soda 
 has been stirred — or common washing soda 
 — and the pores will start again to make 
 the skin's natural ointment. 
 [104] 
 
BREATHING THROUGH THE SKIN 
 
 Another thing you should do to keep the 
 skin in proper breathing condition is to 
 dry rub it night and morning. Not harsh 
 rubbing; just gentle stroking of the body's 
 surface from the little toe to the forehead. 
 After the morning's bath or sponge a good, 
 quick rub and without the application of 
 any sort of perfumes, ointments or 
 powders. 
 
 Ointments, perfumes, powders and other 
 cosmetics, which so long have been asso- 
 ciated with the bath and toilets of the 
 Oriental beauties, are merely artificial aids 
 to artificial lives. 
 
 The girl or woman given over to slaves 
 to perfume and powder, was not expected 
 to last long. She was just a play toy for 
 the hour. She had no energy, no initiative, 
 no ambitions, no real work. How could 
 she, having her breathing capacity shut 
 down to mere existing efficiency? 
 
 Such girls and women never knew what 
 activities lay hidden in the human body 
 and mind. The partial loss of the skin- 
 [105] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 breathing power was never felt, for these 
 unfortunates only existed as decorated and 
 degraded females. 
 
 The girl or woman of today who wants 
 health of mind and body, and all this makes 
 for success and happiness, never should 
 plug the pores of her skin by the use of 
 cosmetics and ointments. 
 
 The use of powder — and only PURE 
 rice powder should be used — upon arms, 
 bosom and back, acts as a breathing inter- 
 ferer. Enameling the skin is always an 
 invitation to self-poisoning. There are 
 occasions when you must use some form of 
 powder. That is, social conventions com- 
 pel its use. But you should always re- 
 member that it is keeping your delicate 
 skin from exhaling to its full power. As 
 soon as possible this powder and all other 
 cosmetics should be washed off, and washed 
 off thoroughly, with warm water and the 
 skin then gently rubbed with a soft linen 
 cloth. Again I caution you: Don't Use 
 soap. 
 
 [106] 
 
BREATHING THROUGH THE SKIN 
 
 The skin makes its own pomade, cold 
 cream and oil, and every time you soap the 
 skin you wash off these necessary greases 
 —necessary because they keep the pores in 
 a condition to breathe. 
 
 The girl or woman who attempts to stop 
 free perspiration is doing the same sort of 
 injury to her body and health she would do 
 if she tried to plug a portion of her lungs. 
 
 Yes; indeed, I mean just that! 
 
 Unless the profuse perspiring is due to 
 extreme nervousness or to some real dis- 
 ease, it means the individual's system is 
 trying to rid itself of body poisons through 
 skin-breathing. 
 
 You may bring on an attack of acute 
 indigestion or kidney poisoning by pre- 
 venting the skin from breathing to the full. 
 Some persons are slow-acting in the kid- 
 neys and liver, and the skin in such cases 
 takes up the residue and throws it off. 
 Never attempt to stop it doing so. 
 
 A profuse sweating coming on without 
 any effort on your part is a certain sign 
 
 [107] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 you have passed over a serious state of in- 
 ternal affairs. A chill without any external 
 cause is a certain sign that your skin has 
 stopped breathing and something serious 
 threatens. In this case the first thing to 
 do before the doctor arrives is to get 
 breathing action in the skin — sweating. 
 Drink plenty of hot water, go to bed 
 wrapped up in heavy blankets with hot- 
 water bottles at feet and round the body. 
 
 Drinking plenty of water is the best way 
 of aiding skin-breathing. Before breakfast 
 two glasses of cool water always should be 
 taken. Drink lots of water during the 
 day. Water also should be taken at meals. 
 For the fleshy woman this is an excellent 
 way to reduce and harden the flesh, for it 
 promotes skin-breathing, and this means a 
 loss of extra fat. The old ideas about not 
 drinking water at meals and that drinking 
 water increased the amount of fat, are 
 known to have been erroneous. 
 
 Many girls and women cannot breathe 
 properly through the skin at night because 
 [108] 
 
BREATHING THROUGH THE SKIN 
 
 they go to bed with an area of the skin 
 covered by powder or other pore-plugging 
 stuff. Generally this is due to fatigue, 
 laziness or lack of understanding of the evil 
 effects. Other persons, both men and 
 women, sleep with too heavy bed clothing, 
 some with thick or tight night clothing. 
 
 Give the skin breathing room. Give it 
 air all around. Have the bed clothing and 
 night apparel so light and loose that the 
 air can circulate everywhere around and 
 under the body. 
 
 If your skin itches or burns it means that 
 either the air does not circulate freely 
 around it or else that you have washed off 
 all the natural grease. This latter condi- 
 tion causes an unseen cracking of the outer 
 skin, exposes the tiny nerve endings and 
 itching and burning sensations follow. 
 
 This sort of skin irritation is a skin cough. 
 The breathing function of the skin is being 
 interfered with and it lets you know the fact 
 by the nagging feeling. 
 
 So again I say: Give the skin air if you 
 [ 109] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 expect it to breathe thoroughly throughout 
 the night and be jolly and comfortable, 
 thus helping the lungs and kidneys to do 
 their share of health work. 
 
 There is no organ or function in the 
 human body which will not do more for 
 you than all the doctors or health authori- 
 ties in the world if you will heed their 
 calls and signals for help and learn to read 
 the messages they send to you. 
 
 And there is one sure thing: If you dose 
 yourself with drugs and " cures " your sys- 
 tem will be deaf, dumb and blind to any 
 and all signals and calls. Drugs and nar- 
 cotics will put your extensive and delicate 
 wireless stations completely out of order; 
 sometimes so they cannot be repaired. 
 
 All men would be far better off if they 
 went naked to bed. In this natural state 
 there is always room for the skin to breathe 
 freely and successfully. What if there 
 should be a fire at night? You will have 
 more energy and be quicker in getting into 
 presentable shape than the man who is 
 [110] 
 
BREATHING TPIROUGH THE SKIN 
 
 lethargic because he has not fully breathed 
 every night through his skin. 
 
 A man has the right to be ashamed of 
 his naked body if he has not utilized all his 
 forces which make for health and physical 
 beauty. But no man has a right to be 
 ashamed of a naked body which shows per- 
 fect health and care. He should be de- 
 cently proud of such a body. 
 
 Any man who has the slightest suspicion 
 that his kidneys are a bit slow in action, 
 can relieve them and rest them by sleeping 
 in his bare skin. Sleeping in bear skins 
 will play havoc with the kidneys. 
 
 Sleeping in the bare skin compels an- 
 other condition most favorable to health — 
 a separate bed and wherever possible a 
 separate sleeping-room. Sleeping in this 
 manner there is space for the skin to get 
 all the benejfits of turning and tossing dur- 
 ing the night. 
 
 The natural turning of the body which 
 is not disturbing, or really a conscious 
 movement, may be likened to the rising and 
 [111] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 falling of the breathing movements of the 
 chest. Rolling over in bed is nature's 
 way of getting every inch of skin surface 
 in position to breathe. 
 
 Women as a rule — and it should be a 
 rule — wear such flimsy and light night 
 apparel that their skins find easy breathing 
 where it is free from pore-closing stuff. 
 However, every woman should try to get 
 an air bath once a day. This may be had 
 by lying naked where the warm or warmed 
 air can brush over the body. But lying 
 round in a bathing costume under a hot sun 
 should be carefully considered. Too long 
 pounding of the sun's rays upon the human 
 skin is injurious. Especially so is this 
 in the case of blonds — men and women. 
 
 Don't bundle or wrap the child in close- 
 fitting and thick night clothes. If you are 
 afraid of a healthy child " catching cold " 
 there is something wrong with your knowl- 
 edge of the rules for health. 
 
 Frightening dreams, wetting the bed, 
 colics; all the many little and big nightly 
 [112] 
 
BREATHING THROUGH THE SKIN 
 
 troubles and discomforts of the baby, 
 mostly are due to the skin being pressed 
 and packed so it cannot freely breathe. 
 The poisons accumulating in the little body 
 are held back, finally get into circulation, 
 and then almost any trouble may follow. 
 And then think of the very large skin 
 surface a chubby child presents to the air. 
 All its many folds, creases, dimples, must 
 have freedom for their pores to breathe. 
 
 Don't powder the baby's sensitive skin ex- 
 cept in some chafed place. Even chafing 
 may be avoided if you are careful not to use 
 soap every time you wash him. When you 
 have to use a plain soap, see that none of 
 it is left in the skin creases and folds, and 
 then held there by tight bands or clothing. 
 
 More babies are bundled into feebleness 
 than ever caught cold by exposure to winds 
 and rains. If you accustom the child to 
 sleep so that its lungs and skin get all pos- 
 sible air blowing around, baby will not catch 
 cold even if it should be forgotten and left 
 out some night. 
 
 [113] 
 
BREATHE AXD EE TTEUL 
 
 As I have stated, the great safety-valve 
 of the kidneys is the skin — the skin that 
 can breathe as well under the arms as on 
 the abdomen, on the forehead as well as 
 through the ankle surface. 
 
 Purposely I admonish: To breathe 
 through the skin for perfect health you 
 should sleep alone. This means every- 
 body: man and wife, brothers, sisters. 
 Only the nursing child has an hygienic 
 right to be next the mother's skin exliala- 
 tions. 
 
 Remember that the skin tlirows off dead 
 material every minute, just as the lungs do. 
 You would not tliink of sleeping night 
 after night so close to the output of an- 
 other's lungs that this poison could be in- 
 haled by you. Xeither should you have 
 the emanations from another's skin circu- 
 lating around your breatliing pores. 
 
 Think this matter over and you t^^II 
 understand. 
 
 Did it ever occur to you what influences 
 right breathing habits and the quality of 
 [114] 
 
BREATHING THROUGH THE SKIN 
 
 air breathed, have upon ideas, views of 
 life, mental output? 
 
 Have you ever read in the books writ- 
 ten by men who lived out-of-doors, do 
 their work in rooms where sunlight and 
 oxygen are ever present, anything but 
 the joy of living— sane, optimistic words? 
 
 The air they breathe, the long walks 
 with head up, chest out, the deep inhala- 
 tions and exhalations bring to these men and 
 women a true and unpoisoned sense of life 
 and health — mental balance. 
 
 But see into the living, breathing habits 
 of the other kind of writers, especially the 
 foreign, who write in gaunt garrets or 
 stuffy cafes. 
 
 These half-breathing men and women, 
 these foul-air consumers, give us what? 
 
 Novels which are so terrible and scarify- 
 ing. Books in which only the reflection of 
 the nasty air is seen. Poems which exhale 
 bestiality and morbid eroticism. 
 
 No matter about these writers' struggle 
 with poverty. There is a worse poverty 
 [115] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 than the material. It is the poverty of 
 health due to the intake of poisonous air 
 and the inability to get rid of the body's 
 poisons. 
 
 These writers, struggling with unhealth, 
 can give us only books saturated with mor- 
 bidity, illusion and delusion. The vitiated 
 blood circulating in their optical centers 
 gives them the illusions; that circulating 
 among the brain cells, delusions. 
 
 The trenchant bitterness of the shop so- 
 cialist is mostly due to the same causes. 
 The nagging, dissatisfied New England in- 
 valid is such because she isolates herself 
 in a superheated room, stuflPs all entrances 
 where the air might get in, walks but little 
 and then bundled up like an Esquimau 
 baby, sleeps with the windows closed and 
 over her attenuated body a mountain of 
 feathers and heating quilts, and shudders 
 at the only thing she needs to make her 
 well — fresh air in her lungs and driving 
 through her skin. 
 
 [116] 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 NEW TISSUES FOR OLD— REJU- 
 VENATING THE BODY AND 
 SKIN 
 
 Many men and women are aged simply 
 through weak activity of those organs and 
 functions which can, under proper condi- 
 tions, make and put into circulation new 
 red blood cells. 
 
 It is sad folly for one who is overfat 
 and worried about facial wrinkles, to ac- 
 cept these conditions as necessarily accom- 
 panying years. The hopeless resignation 
 to the idea that one must become wrinkled 
 and stiff -jointed, loose the cheeks of youth, 
 become stale in health and agility, is the 
 very sure way of getting into this state. 
 
 One may merge into the sixties and 
 seventies as gracefully and as happily as 
 into the thirties. There are the same forces 
 
 [117] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 for making red cheeks in the woman of sixty 
 as in the girl of sixteen. But generally we 
 find in the older woman that the red- 
 blood making power is working only on 
 half-time and without any care or super- 
 vision. 
 
 There is no mystery or occult knowledge 
 of the way the proper breathing habits can 
 rejuvenate the failing body and organs. 
 That such renewal can be brought about 
 by developing the breathing organs and 
 muscles will be readily understood by the 
 following explanations based upon very 
 recent discoveries and experiments. 
 
 The increase in the number of red blood 
 cells in the body is brought about by 
 mechanical means. This mechanical work 
 is done by the body itself, but is not com- 
 pleted without assistance on your part. 
 
 The condition of the blood always ad- 
 justs itself to a variety of bodily and 
 environmental factors. As an example: 
 When you go up into the mountains there 
 is a decrease in atmospheric pressure. 
 [118] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 This means that the whole body is re- 
 leased from a certain weight or pressure it 
 had to withstand in a low altitude. 
 
 This release from a certain amount of 
 atmospheric pressure on the body's sur- 
 face lets loose blood corpuscles which 
 were confined and pressed in some small 
 spaces or tiny arteries and they get into 
 the general circulation. 
 
 In middle-aged persons and those be- 
 yond, there is an unequal distribution of 
 red blood cells, due to pressure of fat, 
 inelastic arteries and weak diaphragms. 
 This latter breathing muscle may be, and 
 generally is, hindered in its freedom by an 
 overdistended stomach or intestinal tract. 
 
 This state of affairs means that red 
 blood corpuscles are jammed in or pushed 
 aside to certain extremities or into blind 
 alleys. In these places they are concen- 
 trated, and unable to obtain oxygen, the 
 cells die, leaving the cast-off materials to 
 be absorbed and make wrinkles and cause 
 stiff joints. 
 
 [119] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 These prisoners — red blood cells — in 
 their concentration camps cannot get out 
 except through tiresome efforts, and often 
 they have exhausted much of their stored- 
 up oxygen when they do find freedom. 
 Under these conditions they are as useless 
 to the human organization as a lot of 
 skillful mechanics would be crowded into 
 a room and unable to get at their respec- 
 tive machines. 
 
 Any mechanical movement or driving 
 force which stirs up these red blood cor- 
 puscles puts them into circulation — starts 
 them doing their allotted work in reju- 
 venating the body and its organs. 
 
 Certain forms of exercise will aid in 
 accomplishing this change from age to 
 youth, but not unless right breathing 
 methods are rigidly adopted and kept up. 
 Emotional states, such as fright and anger, 
 will also temporarily let loose locked-up 
 red blood cells, but also let loose evil 
 forces from the ductless glands.* Conse- 
 
 * See " Sex Problems in Worry and Work"; Clode, publisher. 
 
 [120] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 quently this method of releasing red blood 
 cells should be avoided. 
 
 In cases where vigorous exercises are not 
 at first advisable, change of atmospheric 
 pressure is the primary treatment for un- 
 locking red blood cells. For those accus- 
 tomed to live in a high altitude a change to 
 a much lower one is beneficial. This change 
 brings a pressure upon the body's surface 
 which squeezes out some of these locked-up 
 blood cells, while the same reaction through 
 release of atmospheric pressure takes place 
 in those going from sea-level to a much 
 higher plane. 
 
 But it is not at all necessary to make 
 these changes to bring out the red blood cells 
 from their prisons and hidden caverns. You 
 can do it in your room, office, on a walk. 
 It is simply a matter of first understand- 
 ing, then breathing and exercising. Under- 
 standing enables you to put to use those 
 muscles which squeeze out the blood cells; 
 knowledge of how to breathe gives them 
 their needed oxygen. This understanding 
 [121] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 of what and how to get from the power 
 of muscle contraction; this knowledge of 
 correct and rejuvenating breathing, has 
 been lacking in all forms and kinds of edu- 
 cation. Many methods and much instruc- 
 tion have been given about the value and 
 necessity of deep and slow breathing ex- 
 ercises, and the majority of them have 
 been of great benefit. But the funda- 
 mental facts, the physiologic reasons, have 
 not been really put before the public, and 
 some of the breathing exercises not 
 founded upon these known principles of 
 modern physiology. 
 
 The body constantly makes an attempt 
 through mechanical means to regulate the 
 red-corpuscle content of the blood. Much 
 of this regulating is under nervous con- 
 trol. When there is lack of oxygen in 
 the blood cells this condition reacts as a 
 stimulant to the nerve-cells, and these try 
 to hurry up the blood to greater circula- 
 tory activity — ^to get oxygen. 
 
 There are two organs which principally 
 [122] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 supply the body with red blood cells 
 through mechanical action: the liver and 
 the suprarenal glands. I mean by this that 
 when there is an extra demand for red 
 blood cells this demand is complied with 
 through the liver and suprarenals if they 
 can be put to work. 
 
 So now we come to the real value and 
 the true reason for breathing in such a 
 manner as to put these latter organs to 
 work furnishing red blood cells and the 
 pressure put upon those imprisoned to be 
 of such a nature as to free them. 
 
 It has long been known that massage 
 of the abdomen increases the number of 
 red blood cells, and it has been supposed it 
 did so by mechanically squeezing the blood 
 cells themselves from their hiding and con- 
 fining places in the fatty or unmuscled 
 abdomen. But now we know this is not 
 the true physiological explanation. Re- 
 member I am now referring only to ab- 
 dominal conditions, but very important 
 conditions to understand. 
 
 [123] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 The suprarenal glands secrete a sub- 
 stance called epinephrin. This is a very 
 active stimulant to the red blood cor- 
 puscles. Massage of the abdomen drives 
 this epinephrin into action, which forces 
 the blood cells to take up oxygen — if by 
 proper breathing you are furnishing the 
 oxygen. 
 
 But it does more. By reflex action it 
 draws out from the liver the red blood 
 cells, which also rush about for oxygen. 
 
 See what is coming now; don't you? 
 Some combination of ways and means of 
 squeezing out blood cells and the supra- 
 renal substance and taking in oxygen at 
 the same time. This, systematically done, 
 makes the old young again. 
 
 The first essential to look after, before 
 the breathing exercises commence, is to see 
 that there is absolute freedom from cloth- 
 ing pressure. The whole trunk — waist, 
 neck, abdomen — must have its vessels free 
 to send and receive the full force of the 
 blood stream. 
 
 [124] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 Overstout men who are in the habit of 
 wearing abdominal belts, of going around 
 with a mass of soft fat pushed upwards 
 and inwards by " shape-reducers " and all 
 other artificial and ridiculous signs of self- 
 satisfaction and stupidity, never can real- 
 ize the least benefit from the most vigorous 
 and systematic breathing exercises. No, 
 not if they do remove these male corsets 
 for the time being. For breathing exer- 
 cises mean much more than the few min- 
 utes you stretch and breathe deeply, 
 slowly. They mean a continual prepared- 
 ness to take in fresh air whenever and 
 wherever possible. They mean a freedom 
 and development of the breathing muscles 
 which can be voluntarily put to work at 
 any time. 
 
 Stand in a room where the window is 
 open about a foot at the top and at the 
 bottom. This permits a good and active 
 air circulation. Stretch the arms outward, 
 upward and backward. Do this several 
 times. Then clasp the arms behind the 
 [125] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 back, stretching them so that the shoulders 
 are drawn to a straining point. Release 
 and exhale through the nose. Take deep 
 and SLOW inhalations, letting the air out 
 of your lungs through the nose. 
 
 Now bend the arms upon themselves 
 good and tight; both at the same time, 
 then alternately. Let them hang down 
 passively while you turn and twist the 
 neck. Do this six or eight times, or until 
 you know by the feeling the skin has been 
 stretched. Bring down your chin until 
 it either touches the root of the neck or 
 presses upon the double or triple chin 
 folds. Throw back the head, putting a 
 good tension upon the forepart of the neck. 
 
 During these simple exercises you are to 
 breathe only through the nose. When you 
 feel " out of breath " take a good inhala- 
 tion, hold it for a moment, then exhale with 
 two or three puffs from the mouth. 
 
 Now keep the mouth tightly closed and 
 breathe only through the nose during the 
 following exercises. Head up, shoulders 
 [126] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 back, heels together, bend one leg back- 
 ward at the knee. Take hold of its foot 
 with the corresponding hand and bend it to 
 the cracking point. Release the foot and 
 bring it to the floor. Repeat this move- 
 ment six times. Do the same with the 
 other lower leg. Then the same movement, 
 but using the opposite hand. That is, left 
 foot, right hand; right foot, left hand. 
 Erect, take a long, slow breath and ex- 
 hale it through the nose; another one and 
 blow it out through the mouth, and for- 
 ever after, until further instruction, breathe 
 only through the nose. 
 
 Again upright, head and shoulders back, 
 commence to breathe deeply and slowly. 
 Each time hold the intake for three sec- 
 onds, then exhale through the nose. Keep 
 this up for five minutes. 
 
 In the same position, place your open 
 hands on the soft spots just over and 
 slightly in front of the hip bone. Grab 
 a fold of flesh and fat in each hand, and 
 as you inhale slowly and deeply, let the 
 
 [127] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 folds of flesh gently glide, but not get 
 away from your grasp. Exhale slowly, 
 taking up and pushing up the flesh as it 
 rolls under your hands. Now hold your 
 breath for a moment while giving the 
 fleshy rolls a good hard pinch and grasp. 
 Repeat several times until the grasped and 
 pinched sides are literally red and slightly 
 sensitive. 
 
 The above-described simple exercises 
 should be kept up for two weeks. 
 
 Assuming you are the average man or 
 woman of forty and over with a stomach 
 to reduce and diaphragm to strengthen, 
 get a shot bag with buckshot in it. For 
 the average man six pounds in a full-sized 
 shot bag, for the average woman four 
 pounds. The shot bag will only be partly 
 filled. 
 
 On your back in bed, no pillows or bol- 
 ster, place the bag upon your abdomen. If 
 it is a mountainous or hilly abdomen you 
 will have to gently hold the bag in place. 
 With what voluntary movements of the 
 [128] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 belly muscles it is possible for you to 
 make, move the shot bag around; toss, 
 jump it. Use some effort; get "out of 
 breath." When you feel you must expel 
 through the mouth, rise, and in an upright 
 position expel through the mouth. Then 
 inhale and exhale a few times through the 
 nose. Lie down again and go through 
 the bag tossing and rolling. 
 
 One thing to always keep on the mind. 
 All breathing exercises should be taken 
 standing upright. Don't try any gym- 
 nastic stunts and keep breathing at the 
 same time. When air is needed in the 
 lungs — extra air of course — assume the 
 upright position and breathe slowly and 
 deeply. If you try this rational method 
 of right breathing when in some body- 
 stretched position, the diaphragm is put 
 upon a strain and in time its tone will 
 be lowered. 
 
 The extraordinary effects seen in the 
 professional physical culturist when he in- 
 flates his chest and then blows out through 
 [129] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 his mouth to show how completely the 
 lungs can be emptied, are for exhibition 
 effects only. It makes more noise, pro- 
 duces upon the spectator the idea of won- 
 derful power, and the slight bending of 
 the trunk of the body accentuates the 
 abdominal muscles. 
 
 Try this way of completely emptying 
 your lungs and you will find it apparently 
 a much easier way than the several move- 
 ments necessary to empty them through 
 the natural channels for breathing — the 
 nose. But just because it is easier is why 
 harm is done. You cannot fully develop 
 the diaphragm unless you use it to force 
 the air in the lungs upwards and outwards 
 through the nasal passages. To get this 
 air thoroughly expelled it takes two or 
 three muscular contractions of the dia- 
 phragm. Forcing the air by the shorter 
 way, through the mouth, takes only slight 
 effort in which the external muscles of the 
 stomach, aided by bending, mechanically 
 push it out. 
 
 [130] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 In driving the air from the lungs 
 through the nose, you are forced to stand 
 correctly, head back, neck extended. Blow- 
 ing through the mouth you natm-ally stoop 
 somewhat. Furthermore, the back muscles, 
 when j^ou breathe through the nose, come 
 into play, wliich is important for the man's 
 development, and the ribs are forced to 
 rise higher and sink lower, which is of im- 
 portance in the chest development of the 
 woman. 
 
 When you leave a room to get into 
 the stimulating air of outdoors, you feel 
 as though you would like to actually swal- 
 low some of it. Now, under these circmn- 
 stances it will be all right to exliale from 
 your mouth for a minute or so. But 
 when you have done so, start right breath- 
 ing through the nose and do not again 
 use the mouth until another period of 
 close air breathing has been your un- 
 fortunate lot. 
 
 Remember this about mouth-breathing: 
 The teeth and mucous membrane of the 
 
 [131] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 mouth were not made to withstand a con- 
 stant spraying of carbonic acid. This is 
 the kind of spraying they get when the 
 habit of mouth-breathing is kept up. 
 
 Be certain to take the measurements of 
 your chest and waist every week. The 
 first two weeks will end in disappoint- 
 ment, the third week will be the com- 
 mencement of hope, the fourth, joy. 
 
 Of course the stomach dancing of the 
 shot bag is in addition to all the other 
 exercises outlined and should end the 
 night's work. Much faster improvement 
 will be made and all tendencies to con- 
 stipation more quickly removed, if you 
 spend five minutes every morning with the 
 shot bag. 
 
 By these various exercises superfluous fat 
 is worked off and burnt up. The dia- 
 phragm comes under your voluntary con- 
 trol to an extent that will astonish you. 
 With the diaphragm under full control 
 of your will you need never again become 
 [132] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 overfat, out-of -breath climbing stairs, puffy 
 nor constipated. 
 
 After four weeks of the exercises I have 
 described, you may commence vigorous 
 bending, twisting, stretching of all the 
 trunk muscles. No specific directions are 
 needed for these exercises except to state 
 that whatever part of your trunk muscles 
 seem to rebel, go to them. Let no seem- 
 ing difficulty prevent you from conquering 
 any particular muscle or group of muscles. 
 The information I have given regarding 
 the confined and pressed-in red blood cells, 
 will make the reasons and necessity for all 
 these twistings and turnings of the body 
 upon the hips plain to you. 
 
 If you go at this vigorously you will re- 
 quire — or your new blood cells will — a large 
 amount of extra oxygen. You will find 
 the deep, slow breathing after a few mo- 
 ments of this form of exercise not only 
 necessary, but compelling and exceedingly 
 pleasing. 
 
 Hold your mouth tightly closed while 
 [133] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 twisting and bending and also hold your 
 breath as much as possible. Then when it 
 is no longer possible to proceed with the 
 exercise without letting out the breath, 
 stop, open your mouth and empty your 
 lungs. Now, close your mouth and breathe 
 slowly and deeply through the nose. Start 
 again with the body bending and twisting 
 stunts, repeating the breathing methods. 
 Keep up this exercise for ten minutes. 
 
 All these exercises must take place when 
 the stomach is fairly empty. That is, they 
 never should follow a full meal, when you 
 feel really exhausted — not simply tired or 
 a bit lazy — nor after any nervous strain or 
 emotional period. These latter states may 
 be benefited and recovery hastened by 
 simply breathing slowly and deeply in the 
 open air. But all this should be done 
 without extra effort and cease just as 
 soon as it causes effort. 
 
 There are many reasons why one should 
 always breathe through the nose aside from 
 those I have mentioned. But to go into 
 [ 134 ] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 details would lead us far beyond our legiti- 
 mate bounds. Suffice it to say that the lin- 
 ing of the nose contains many nerve endings 
 and bulbs, which carry various and some- 
 times curious messages to the brain and 
 nerve centers. Irritation of these nerves, 
 inability to function, over-stimulation, all 
 and each sort of disarrangement, play 
 havoc with man and woman. The general 
 health can be affected, hidden impulses sent 
 rioting, eyes weakened and olfactory and 
 other senses injured. 
 
 These sensitive push - buttons located 
 along the nasal passages are kept in a 
 healthy condition by the air passing to and 
 fro; by the carbonic acid solutions, alter- 
 nate cooling and warming, constant secret- 
 ing of a protective fluid. 
 
 Man uses his diaphragm and back mus- 
 cles in breathing somewhat differently than 
 woman does. Especially does he need to 
 develop those muscles in the small of the 
 back, as they help push up and draw down 
 the big breathing muscle. Woman, in 
 [135] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 breathing, uses more of her chest muscles 
 and these are of greater importance for 
 her to strengthen than the back muscles. 
 
 Stretching of the arms in all directions 
 while standing upright; the steady infla- 
 tion and deflation of the lung cavity, free- 
 dom at all times from any confining pres- 
 sure on the trunk of her body from the 
 upper part of her neck to the lower ribs, 
 are conditions absolutely necessary for 
 woman's chest development. 
 
 Corsets which fit snugly around the 
 waist and hips do not interfere with a 
 woman's ability to breathe correctly. But 
 she must practice breathing exercises so as 
 to develop the upper portions of her lungs 
 and give the ribs every opportunity to 
 expand and contract the chest cavity. This 
 only can be done while she stands free 
 from all clothing except such as merely 
 hangs loosely from her waist. If modesty 
 has gone so far into her system that she 
 cannot look at her naked trunk, then a 
 weightless blouse will suffice. 
 [136] 
 
NEW TISSUES FOR OLD 
 
 An infant breathes almost entirely by 
 the movements of the diaphragm. This 
 important fact all mothers should never 
 forget. They will then see that no pressure 
 of bands or clothes prevents free move- 
 ments of the little one's belly muscles, and 
 well understand why the child should never 
 be propped up in cradle or carriage. 
 
 You can derive only partial benefit from 
 right breathing if your body is constantly 
 taking in even small quantities of alcohol. 
 
 Alcohol robs the blood cells of oxygen, 
 for oxygen has great affinity for alcohol, 
 or alcohol has for oxygen. It makes little 
 difference; the point is, that as soon as 
 alcohol goes into the system it is oxidized. 
 
 But only a certain amount is burnt up — 
 oxidized. Exceed this amount, and be- 
 cause there is not sufficient oxygen to burn 
 it up — and no extent of breathing oxygen 
 in can do it — one becomes poisoned by the 
 alcohol and its by-products. 
 
 It is true that in the average person 
 about two ounces of alcohol can be com- 
 
 [137] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 pletely burned up every twenty-four hours. 
 But common sense will tell you that all 
 this oxygen is wasted, because if it did not 
 have to work upon the alcohol it would be 
 working upon the blood cells. 
 
 This is why drinkers get old far beyond 
 their years. 
 
 Hope is only an expression of a clean 
 body and clean mind. Its foundations are 
 oxygenated blood cells. 
 
 The reverse of hope is depression; its 
 real meaning is that there is some lack of 
 oxygenated blood cells and freedom to cir- 
 culate is somehow restrained in others. 
 
 This is the explanation of the change 
 taking place in you when you start to work 
 depressed in spirits, but come home — if you 
 have walked and breathed deeply — feeling 
 hopeful and elated. 
 
 [138] 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SOME SIMPLE BREATHING 
 EXERCISES 
 
 Oxygen is the only stimulant upon 
 which you can safely rely as a depression 
 chaser and body builder. 
 
 All breathing exercises should have for 
 their one purpose the forcing of oxygen 
 into all parts of the body. 
 
 Breathing exercises should not be con- 
 fused with physical exercises, for while 
 breathing means physical and nervous 
 strength, by itself it has nothing to do with 
 mere muscular development. However, it 
 is almost impossible to have oxygen freely 
 circulating in the body without the good 
 effects showing in muscular development. 
 
 For example: In many breathing ex- 
 ercises in order to learn to control the 
 breath and force it to cause pressure upon 
 [139] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 muscles or organs, resistance and concen- 
 tration are necessary. This resistance de- 
 velops muscular tissue. Place your hands, 
 interlocked, behind your head. The back 
 of the head should rest against the palms. 
 Now try to push the head backwards, re- 
 sisting it by pressure of the hands. Every 
 muscle in the neck and hands, arms, shoul- 
 ders, will be put upon tension. While 
 doing this hold your breath and keep up 
 the resistance of the opposing forces just 
 as long as you can hold your breath. Let 
 the arms drop passively to the sides as you 
 let out the breath slowly through the 
 mouth. Return to the same tension atti- 
 tude, but this time let the breath out of 
 the nostrils at second intervals. Take a 
 deep, slow breath and repeat. 
 
 This method of tension and concentra- 
 tion should be exercised with every group 
 of opposing muscles in the body accom- 
 panied by the breathing details. For in- 
 stance: Stoop over with arms hanging 
 down. Now imagine, or make it an actual 
 [ 140 ] 
 
SOME SIMPLE BREATHING EXERCISES 
 
 physical fact through resistance, that you 
 are lifting a heavy weight. Pull upwards, 
 holding the breath. After the tenseness 
 of arm and back muscles, legs and ab- 
 domen is telling upon your lung strain, 
 resume the upright position and exhale 
 slowly through the mouth. Take a deep, 
 slow inhalation, hold it and repeat the ten- 
 sion exercise, but then exhale through the 
 nose. 
 
 After a few moments of this work 
 breathe deeply, slowly, and place the hands 
 over the pit of the stomach. Gently feel 
 if the diaphragm is doing the air forcing 
 instead of the chest muscles. If not, keep 
 up the exercises day after day until you 
 realize that it is the big belly muscle you 
 have under control as well as the rib 
 muscles. 
 
 All animals upon rising from sleep or 
 rest first stretch every limb and muscle be- 
 fore facing the sun and breathing deeply 
 and slowly. 
 
 The child should be taught to stretch, 
 [141] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 reach, with hands, fingers, feet and toes. 
 Get it to play " toe reaching " in the morn- 
 ing as an exercise in dressing. Where 
 there are two or more little children the 
 game may be made quite interesting to 
 them. 
 
 The child standing upright, shoulders 
 back, arms relaxed, may have the stockings 
 and shoes just far enough away to make it 
 real play to try to reach out with one leg 
 and foot and pick up the stocking with the 
 toes, then draw it to the extended hand. 
 
 First the right foot for the right stock- 
 ing, then the left foot for the left stock- 
 ing. The same movement should be gone 
 through in reaching for the shoes. 
 
 Teach the child to stand while putting 
 on the stockings, meanwhile holding its 
 breath. The child should let out the breath 
 by a slow, very slow action. Don't let 
 the child blow out the air with muscular 
 efforts — ^just let the air " die out." 
 
 You will have to use patience and under- 
 standing with the child before this breath- 
 [142] 
 
SOME SIMPLE BREATHING EXERCISES 
 
 ing movement becomes natural and un- 
 conscious; but it is the only way if you 
 v/ant to bring about the wonderful effects 
 of proper breathing. And remember this: 
 Once this natural way of rhythmical 
 breathing is brought about it continues 
 throughout life, and health and immunity 
 from colds, lung troubles, are secured, and 
 the blood is ever making new red cells. 
 
 With heels together, holding, or what it 
 really should be, controlling, the breath so 
 that only a little gets out through puffing 
 cheeks, the child should rise and fall upon 
 the balls of its feet. This exercise de- 
 velops the calves of the legs and 
 strengthens the back. But it does far 
 more; it makes the diaphragm rhythmically 
 rise and fall, keeps the upper chest from 
 doing more than its share and permits 
 free movement of the lower portion of 
 the lungs. 
 
 What is meant in this sense of rhythmic 
 breathing is that the diaphragm will rise 
 and fall in its full strength, is controlled 
 [ 143] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 by the will and habituated to move deeply 
 and so cause a wave or motion to pass 
 over all the internal organs. 
 
 Emotions, regulation of heart-beats, 
 movements of breathing, should all be 
 linked so that the control of one organ 
 or function controls the others. This ac- 
 quired state means bodily and mental 
 poise — that condition which demonstrates 
 an exact rhythm under normal excitement, 
 exercise or elation. Rapid, shallow breath- 
 ing under excitement shows want of con- 
 trol over breathing muscles, especially that 
 of the diaphragm. 
 
 But there are such wonderful under- 
 lying forces in really deep breathing that 
 once you form the habit it takes care of 
 the body and its nervous organization. 
 This latter fact accounts for the displace- 
 ment of rapid, shallow breathing by slow, 
 deep breathing, and the bodily rhythm 
 started keeps the whole system from being 
 upset. 
 
 For the adult the same form or any 
 [ 144 ] 
 
SOME SIMPLE BREATHING EXERCISES 
 
 modified method which will compel stretch- 
 ing and control of the breath should be 
 adopted. Especially valuable will be the 
 exercise of rising and falling upon the 
 balls of the feet. While doing this you 
 must carefully observe the way the breath 
 tries to blow out or get away from your 
 control. 
 
 Hold the breath and let it out slowly 
 and only under your control. This is for 
 the development and rhythmic habit of the 
 diaphragm. The young woman will find 
 that, simple as these exercises seem, they 
 will soon bring about rounding curves and 
 red cheeks. 
 
 Don't try any stretching exercises with 
 the lungs empty of air. Always stretch 
 on a full breath and while you are holding 
 it. Contract the muscles of arms, legs, 
 whichever group you are working on at 
 the time, while holding your breath. Then 
 relax the muscles and immediately exhale 
 very slowly: the first time through the 
 mouth, afterwards through the nostrils. 
 [ 145] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 For example: You want shapely hands 
 and wrists. Stretch the arms at right 
 angles to your body. Stretch them until 
 the elbows creak. Bend each finger 
 tensely; squeeze the palms. Now relax 
 and let the breath slowly leave the lungs. 
 Take a deep inhalation; hold it and then 
 stretch some other muscle or group of 
 muscles — legs, neck, ankle — emptying the 
 lungs through the nostrils. When you 
 feel the red blood tingling in the tips of 
 the fingers or in any part, you have 
 stretched and forced the oxygen, you may 
 be sure you are building health and lon- 
 gevity — keeping old age away. 
 
 I do not believe there is any advantage 
 in breathing first through one nostril and 
 then through another as is advised by some 
 teachers of breathing. The nostrils are 
 intended to take in oxygen together where 
 the warmed air streams can meet as one 
 and pass to the entrance of the lungs. 
 
 There is no more reason to use the nos- 
 trils separately and alternately than there 
 [ 146 ] 
 
SOME SIMPLE BREATHING EXERCISES 
 
 is to run a two-cylinder car first on 
 one cylinder, then on the other. If you 
 suspect trouble in one and use this method 
 to detect the faulty one, all very well. 
 Use the single nostril for this same pur- 
 pose and for this purpose only. 
 
 A splendid way to develop chest capacity, 
 stretch the muscles and learn to control the 
 breath, is to stand in an open doorway with 
 your hands firmly grasping the sides of 
 the door space. 
 
 Heels together, head up, let your body 
 fall forward, moving upon the balls of the 
 feet. The body must be held rigid, but not 
 too tense, and go forward as far as pos- 
 sible without letting go of the hand grasp. 
 Swing back upon the balls of your feet 
 until the heels touch the floor. Do this 
 several times, meanwhile holding the breath. 
 Drop the hands to the sides, then exhale 
 slowly, first through the mouth and ever 
 afterward through the nostrils. Make no 
 muscular eff'ort at inhaling or exhaling, but 
 
 [147] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 let the diaphragm contract and expand at 
 its own volition. 
 
 If you find that this latter muscle is 
 somewhat reluctant to do its full share of 
 work, close your nostrils by pressing your 
 fingers upon them and hold your breath 
 until there is a feeling of upward pressure 
 in the abdominal regions. Then release the 
 nostrils and let the diaphragm push out the 
 air SLOWLY. By repeated tests and ex- 
 perience you can readily get control over 
 the diaphragm. And remember that you 
 have not reached the point of deep breath- 
 ing for health until you have this control 
 over the big breathing muscle. 
 
 Persons who have reached middle life 
 can just as surely learn to control the 
 breath as they can their muscles — so can 
 the elderly man or woman if they will stick 
 to it. Controlling the breath is exactly 
 the same thing as controlling any other 
 function where muscular tissues are con- 
 cerned. Breathing slowly, breathing 
 deeply, holding the air and expelling it as 
 [148] 
 
SOME SIMPLE BREATHING EXERCISES 
 
 you will, only is done through control 
 of all the breathing muscles. 
 
 Merely holding the breath until you are 
 FORCED to let it blow out because you 
 cannot help it, IS NOT CONTROL OF 
 THE BREATHING MUSCLES. 
 
 If you have strengthened the abdominal 
 muscles you may derive benefit from deep- 
 breathing exercises while lying down in 
 bed. If you have not developed these 
 abdominal muscles this form of attempting 
 to control the diaphragm is somewhat risky 
 because you will naturally resort to the use 
 of the external belly muscles instead of 
 the diaphragm, to press out the eager air. 
 
 One could continue to tiresome lengths 
 in pointing out the many ways and 
 methods by which air may be sent to all 
 parts of the body, but understanding the 
 principles and reasons for this necessary 
 accomplishment ought to be sufficient for 
 the reader. Moreover, each individual will 
 find pleasure in devising new and ingenious 
 [ 149] 
 
BREATHE AND BE WELL 
 
 ways to suit his or her individual needs and 
 peculiarities. 
 
 "What is life?" 
 
 " Life is the interval between one breath and 
 another — he who only half breathes only half 
 lives, but he who uses Nature's rhythm in breath- 
 ing has control over every function of his being." 
 — F row, the Sanskrit. 
 
 THE END 
 
 [150] 
 
1 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the 
 expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as 
 provided by the library rules or by special arrangement with 
 the Librarian in charge. 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C28(546)M2B 
 
 
 
 

 RA78E 
 
 H83 
 
 / 
 
 il award 
 Breathe end be well 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 RA782. 
 
 H85