With many flat-chested and anemic girls I have seen an equally
astonishing improvement. I have seen their chest develop, their busts
become firm and rounded, and tell-tale hollows under their collar bones
fill out.
Almost invariably, flabby muscles become resilient, pale sallow cheeks
become pink with the sweet flush of healthy youth.
Incidentally, I have discovered a variety of virtues in controlled
breathing. Thus, in the case of that most annoying among minor
ailments, a cold, I have found that I could invariably be rid of it
within twenty-four hours by means of strenuous breathing exercises for
twenty minutes at a time repeated often during the day.
For a more formal indorsement of this system, I may refer to the
Societe Internationale de la Tuberculose. An investigation by the
society was reported favorably at The Hague and London.
In this connection, it should be remembered that the world at large
has not yet begun to realize the supreme value of correct, quiet,
slow breathing for general health. Its practice regularly would
unquestionably prove a preventative of tubercular disease. Its
judicious employment by those already affected would prove a powerful
remedial agent. Consumptives who seek the pure air of mountains or
plains often fail to receive benefit, for the simple reason that they
have never learned the proper manner of breathing. To such, the best of
air is useless as the most nourishing food to the one who has no teeth
with which to chew.
When one inhales, the lungs seem to grow. As the cells are filled with
air, the chest proportionately enlarges. At the same time, the ribs
and the diaphragm assume a new position. The result is that the chest,
the between-rib muscles, and the diaphragm are all very strenuously
exercised. By proper breathing, the various muscles involved are
constantly trained; they are developed and made elastic to such
an extent that the lungs are not required to stand alone in their
resistance against adverse conditions, both without and within.
* * * * *
The lungs expand during inhalation; they contract during exhalation.
A full breath dilates the lungs to their maximum capacity; they
relax to the minimum size when the breath is completely expelled. By
practice one can readily learn to influence the various movements, and
gradually to control them. The practice of the first exercises in the
series given includes sudden exhalation, slow exhalation, and rhythmic
exhalation. These tend to reduce the quantity of air that is left in
the lungs when the breath is expelled. Such residual air is poisonous,
and an excess of it, due to improper breathing, is very injurious. Its
retention in the lung cells not only lessens the space available to be
filled with fresh air, but it also acts as a direct agent for ill in
the bodily processes.