BY WILLIAM BLAIKIE,
AUTHOR OF "HOW TO GET STRONG, AND HOW TO STAY SO."
Stand erect, with the chin turned a little up. Draw through the nose all
the air you can, till your chest is brimful. Now place in the mouth a
piece of clay pipe stem, say an inch long, and blow through it as long
and hard as you can, as if you were trying to blow out a flame.
Well, what does this do? Try a few whiffs, and see. If not used to it,
at first it may make you feel dull, perhaps dizzy. But this soon wears
off, and you find that a few minutes of this lung-filling now and then
through the day is working wonders. The chest seems to be actually
growing larger; and it really is, for you are stretching out every
corner of it. But the heart and stomach--indeed, about all the vital
organs--feel the new pressure, and better digestion, brisker
circulation, and a warmer and very comfortable feeling over the whole
body are among the results. M----, an oil-broker in New York, says that
at thirty-six he had a weak voice, stood slouched over and inerect, was
troubled with catarrh, and knew too well what it was to have the stomach
and bowels work imperfectly. Most people can not inflate the chest so as
to increase its girth over two inches. By steady practice at his little
pipe, he in about a year got so that he could inflate five whole inches.
But now his chest is noticeably round and full, and he is as straight a
man as any in a dozen. His weak voice has gone; indeed, he says he has
the strongest voice of any in a choir in which he now sings. The catarrh
has left, while his stomach is simply doing nobly. The fuller veins in
his hands and the swifter reaction when he bathes tell that his
circulation is also stronger and quicker than formerly, while he has a
general health and buoyancy to which he had long been a stranger. These
are surely wonderful changes in a man of his age, and in that brief
time, and each change is plainly for the better. Not only do his friends
remark it, but he delights in telling all who will listen. A lady
friend, following his example, found her angular shoulders and
indifferent chest fast improving in a way most gratifying. A friend, at
our suggestion--one of the fastest half-mile runners in America,
by-the-way--tried the pipe. In five weeks of faithful practice he so
enlarged his chest that when his lungs were full he could scarcely
button his vest. He says that in severe running he finds his throat and
bronchial tubes do not tire as easily as before, but are tough and equal
to their work, and so help him to more sustained effort.
Though all the results of this deep breathing are not known, it can
hardly fail to bring great good to many of us in-door people, who most
of the day never half fill our lungs, and at all events it is very easy
to try. Any ivory-worker will for a dime turn you a pipe of bone or
ivory an inch long, three-eighths thick, and with a hole through it a
sixteenth of an inch in diameter, with the sides fluted so that your
teeth may hold it, and prevent you from swallowing it. This, too, can be
readily carried in the pocket. Try it.
[Begun in No. 1 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, Nov. 4.]