COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE
HEALTH SCIENCES STANDARD
lllll
HX64
QP121 .N66
II iiii III lllll iiiii III
00243
Rhythmic breathing p
„.,,
; l.>i\i^i
i^fi:'!^'
m
ON RESPIRATION^
NOBLE
RECAP
aPlZl NGG
College of ^tpgicians anb burgeons;
Gipt op
Pk. Mark L.H.A.Srvo w
,i^W <:^^^^^v^
Price, $2.00
From Publisher, Richard B. Noble
Huntington Chambers
Boston, Mass.
And all Booksellers
Rhythmic Breathing
plus
Olfactory Nerve Influence
on Respiration
By author of
'A Method for the Millions ;' ''The Key to
Physical Regeneration^'' ''The House we
Live i7i/' "Nasal Hygiene,'' "Conscious
Relaxation an Effectual Substitute for
Hypnosis in Psycho-Therapy
PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR
RICHARD B. NOBLE
Publisher and Bookseller
HUNTINGTON CHAMBERS
BOSTON, MASS.
1908
IV u
Copyright, 1908
By RICHARD B. NOBLE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OP TRANSLATION
INTO SCANDINAVIAN, AND OTHER FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Bebtcateb to
DEFECTIVE BREATHERS
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
This illustrated lesson-book on Rhythmic
Breathing- plus Olfactory Nerve Influence on
Respiration, will be found to be of equal
value to the child or the adult. It is offered
to the public in the interests of an organiza-
tion, for better lung development in children,
— a crusade organized and chartered' in 1906,
now internationally recognized as one of the
most important educational movements of
the twentieth century, one that will leave
its imprint on coming generations.
Richard B. Noble.
Publisher, Huntington Chambers,
Boston, Mass.
OBJECT OF THE CRUSADE
To establish centers in all large cities,
where parents and teachers may obtain free
scientific instruction and practical sugges-
tions for the prevention of nasal and pul-
monary troubles in children.
During a recent visit to Washington,
D. C, to lecture (by the invitation of the
Board of Education of the District of Co-
lumbia, Washington, D. C.) the founder
personally invited the fullest investigation
of this Crusade, of the Surgeons-General of
the Army, Navy and Marine Hospital Ser-
vice. And the Board of Directors of this
Crusade and organization, cordially invite the
investigation and co-operation of all State and
Municipal Boards of Health and Education.
Much of the work of this Crusade is free.
During the past two years, more than ten
thousand mothers and teachers and children
have been instructed. All are urged to join
an endless chain of Crusaders, and unite in
gaining knowledge that will stamp out the
greatest menace to the lives of children the
world has ever known.
CONTENTS
LESSON PAGE
1. The Chemistry of Breath 1
2. Olfactory Nerve Influence on
Respiration 3
3. Better Lung Development for
Children 12
4. First Aid for Prevention of
Catarrh and Pulmonary
Affections (from author's
address before American In-
ternational Congress, 1906) 20
5. The Cellular Process of Body
Building 28
6. "Simplified" Dietetics 37
7. Obesity, Cause and Prevention 52
8. "Simplified" Voice Building
(Voice Pictures) 62
9. Origin of Music (East Indian
Tradition) 81
10. Controlled Breathing — the
Basic Principle of Muscu-
lar Energy 88
11. Rhythm AND Contour Culture 99
12. First Aid to Longevity 109
Introduction to Exercises 121
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Olfactory Bulb with Its Nerves.
(Dalton) .... Facing
4
Diagram of Cells and Fibers in Olfac-
tory Region .... "
5
Nerves of the Outer Wall of the Nasal
Fossae . . . . . "
6
Olfactory Nerves (Herschfeld and
Leveille) ....
6
An Oriental Baby (High Caste) .
12
An English Child ...
13
An American Child . . . "
14
Public School Girl (Mouth Breather) "
15
Public School Boy (Mouth Breather)
15
Test Cases (Common Types in Public
Schools) :
Shallow Breather (Starving for
Oxygen) ... "
i6
Same Girl^ Two Weeks Later "
i6
Mouth Breather (Boy) . . "
17
Same Boy Two Weeks Later "
17
Shallow Breather (Starving for
Oxygen) . . . "
i8
Same Boy After Three Weeks'
Training ... "
i8
A Defective Breather (Before) "
19
Same Girl After Two Weeks'
Training ... "
19
Metric Table and Harmonic Scale "
76
Metric Table and Harmonic Scale
(Bleyer and M. M. Wilson) .
76
xii Illustrations
PAGE
Voice Figures (Bleyer) . . Facing 76
Voice Pictures (Mrs. Hughes) (by
permission) .... "77
Voice Figures (Chladni) . . "77
The Vina of India ... "80
Exercise for Developing Lung
Power .... "88
Exercise for Strengthening Chest and
Ribs "89
Rhythmic Development of Muscles " 93
Modern Contours ... " loi
Homer . . . . . " 1120
How to Energize Circulation and Flat-
ten Shoulder Blades . " 121
How to Re-establish Rhythmic Breath " 126
How to Energize Muscles and Arouse
Nerve Energy by Stretching Ex- •
ercises in Bed ... " 126
Right Way to Stand and Walk . " 127
Energizing Whole Body Through
Breath Control . . . < " 127
Skeleton of Ribs, Showing Attach-
ments of Cartilage . . " 128
Exercise for Reducing Hips and
Waist "129
Exercise for Reducing Generally . " 129
LESSON 1
THE CHEMISTRY OF BREATH IN
ITS RELATION TO PHYSICAL
EFFICIENCY
. . . "And a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."
— From mural inscriptions, Congressional Library,
Washington, D. C.
"I am in health. I breathe." — Shakespeare.
The Alpha and Omega (the beginning
and the end) of Hfe remain obscured in the
mists of past centuries.
Up to date the most practical solution of
life's eternal mystery, is, that to remain alive,
even for a few minutes, we must breathe.
The cessation of breathing, constitutes the
dissolution of all bodily functions, in what is
called death.
Modern scientific research proves that
every material connected with life is a chem-
ical substance, and that physical life abounds
in chemicals, which are apparently inert un-
til brought into electro-chemic activity by
the absorption of oxygen, through the nat-
2 Rhythmic Breathing plus
ural and automatic function of rhythmic
breathing.
Chemical structures find their way into
the blood through the route of digestion and
assimilation of food stuffs, but are not ready
for absorption into the chemical process of
body building, until their potential energy
has been liberated by oxygen. We live in an
electrical era, and it is not too much to as-
sume that the highest electrical vibration in
this sphere is human life.
Back of it all is the one eternal first cause
known as universal energy, creating by its
different rates of vibration all the physical
phenomena of which man is conscious.
In the Western Hemisphere rhythmic
breathing plus olfactory nerve influence on
respiration (as designed by nature) is com-
paratively a lost art.
"The foundation of every state is the education of its
youth." — Dionysius.
It is in the interests of millions of defective
breathing children in homes and public
schools, that this lesson-book is offered to
parents and teachers.
LESSON 2
OLFACTORY NERVE INFLUENCE
ON RESPIRATION
"There is only one good, namely knowledge. And only
one evil, namely ignorance." — Socrates, Diogenes Laertius,
Sec. XIV.
As the chief sentinel of the respiratory
tract, the nose has a function second to none
in physiological value. The muscles of res-
piration begin in the nostrils with two tiny
sets called dilators and constrictors (their
Latin names are devoid of meaning for the
average reader. This book is intended for
practical use among the laity).
It is just inside the lower edges of the nos-
trils that the process of filtering the air we
breathe begins, for which purpose we find
a growth of short hairs called vibrissae.
Another function of the nose is to moisten
and raise the temperature of the air on its
route to the lungs. Its mucous secretions
(in normal health) have probably a steriliz-
ing or germicidal action on the air inhaled.
Another function of the nose controls the
4 Rhythmic Breathing plus
resonators, or sound cavities, of the voice,
which are closely connected with the nasal
passages.
Jean de Reszke, one of the most prom-
inent authorities of the age on voice build-
ing and tone placing, is reported to have said :
''La grande question du chant devient une
question du nez" (the great question of sing-
ing becomes a question of the nose).
In the olfactory region of the nasal fossae
can be found the olfactory bulb. See cut
(Dalton).
Some of the terminals of the olfactory
nerve bulb — the rod, or olfactory nerve cells —
were discovered by Schultze, and a distri-
bution of glands, by Bowman (see cut).
Some of which glands and nerves are
not entirely confined to the olfactory mucous
membrane; they are now believed to extend
beyond it and into the respiratory parts of
the fossae. (For further and more scientific
elucidation the scientific student is referred
to Laurens' "Surgery on Nose, Throat and
Ear," or any good work on the anatomy of
the nasal cavities.)
The author is trying to simplify this chap-
ter for the laity. Many practical experi-
1, OLFACTORY BULB WITH ITS NERVES
2, NASAL BRANCH OF THE FIFTH PAIR OF
CRANIAL NERVES
3, SPHENO-PALATINE GANGLION
(Dalton's distribution of nerves in nasal
passages)
C. AN OLFACTORY CELL. HUMAN. (v. Brunn)
DIAGRAM OF THE CONNECTIONS OF CELLS AND FIBERS IN THE
OLFACTORY BULB
olf. c, cells of the olfactory mucous membrane; olf. n.,
deepest layer of the bulb composed of the olfactory nerve-
fibers, which are prolonged from the olfactory cells ; gl.,
olfactory glomeruli, containing arborizations of the olfac-
tory nerve-fibers and of the dendrons of the mitral cells ;
m.c, mitral cells, a, their axis-cylinder processes passing
toward the nerve-fiber layer, n.tr., of the bulb to become
continuous with fibers of the olfactory tract; these axis-
cylinder processes are seen to give off collaterals, some of
which pass again into the deeper layers of the bulb; n, a
nerve-fiber from the olfactory tract ramifying in the gray
matter of the bulb.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 5
ments and tests along the lines of olfactory
nerve influence in controlling respiration and
in which there have been no failures have
been made during the last three years on all
sorts and conditions of patients.
No claim is made for a new and startling
discovery.
No enthusiastic theory is advanced that
people must swallow "cum grano salis."
Merely a simple and practical adaptation
of a method that has been common in the
Orient for the past four thousand years of
daily utilizing olfactory nerve influence in
the control of respiration.
Fullest investigation (by those qualified
to judge) is invited, and a crowd of living
witnesses, of all ages from five to seventy-
five, can demonstrate the efficacy of this
method in preventing and curing catarrhal
and other respiratory troubles of the nose,
throat and bronchi, and rendering them com-
paratively free from colds, etc.
"He who tastes a single grain of mustard seed, knows
more of its flavor than he who sees an elephant load of it."
— Old Sanscrit Proverb.
(4 All muscles controlling the respiratory
tract were desi2:ned for use. Muscular ac-
6 Rhythmic Breathing plus
tivity can only find volition through expendi-
ture of nervous energy from some nerve
center. . The olfactory bulb is an important
nerve center.
Some, perhaps, who read this will impa-
tiently set aside these views as visionary or
not in accordance with the anatomical history
of the Western world.
It seems to be what Mark Twain has called
the cussedness of "human nature" to raise
up barriers against progressive innovations
and condemn them without investigation.
"The friction which prejudice causes can only be over-^
come by the spread of knowledge."
It is well to profit by the mistakes of those
who have passed on. In the English medical
records one may still read that when Sir
James Simpson introduced chloroform as an
inhalent in surgery he was bitterly opposed
by the medical faculty, who said, "We vio-
late the boundaries of our noble profession
when we urge or seduce our fellowmen, for
the sake of avoiding pain, to pass into a state
of existence the secrets of which we know
so little." Even his church decided he was
committing wilful sin and turned him out.
NERVES OF THE OUTER WALL OF THE NASAL FOSS^. (From
Sappey, after Hirschfeld and Leveille) Ys
I, network of the branches of the olfactory nerve, de-
scending upon the region of the superior and middle
turbinated bones; 2, external twig of the nasal nerve;
3, spheno-palatine ganglion ; 4, ramification of the large
palatine nerve; 5, small, and 6, external turbinated bones;
7, branch to the region of the mferior turbinated bone ;
8, branch to the region of the superior and middle turbi-
nated bones ; 9, naso-palatine branch to the septum cut
short.
^jfTii i7v"viia
xi^
XII
FROM SAPPEY, AFTER HIRSCHFELD AND LEVEILLE
I, The olfactory bulb; i, the olfactory nerves passing
through the foramina of the cribriform plate and descend-
ing to be distributed on the septum ; 2, the internal or
septal twig of the nasal branch of the ophthalmic nerve;
3, nasal palatine nerves.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 7
To-day — only fifty years later — Dr. Osier
writes, ''Search the scriptures of human
achievement and you cannot parallel in
beneficence Anesthesia, Sanitation, with all
that it includes, and Asepsis — a short half
century's contribution toward the practical
solution of the problems of human suffering,
before regarded as eternal and insoluble."
Although the inventions and discoveries
of modern date are stupendous in their mag-
nitude and profound in their depth, too little
is yet known of the laws which govern the
finer forces of Nature.
There is no limit to human possibilities,
but even for the most vital among us the
span of life is very short, and we should
welcome any rational method for the allevia-
tion of pain and the possibility of prolonging
the days of human existence.
If the seeds that have been sown by this
Crusade (in the interests of which this book
is offered to the public) take root, correct
respiration and nasal hygiene will become a
national habit in the near future.
It was Priestley who discovered that at-
mospheric oxygen possessed the property of
converting venous into arterial blood. La-
8 Rhythmic Breathing plus
voisier was the next on record to amplify the
discovery, and he founded the chemical
theory of respiration. Later, 1788, Goodwyn
discovered and proved that when air was
excluded from venous blood it remained un-
changed and death followed. Of later date
still, among the most reliable and scientific
writers and contributors on the subject of
respiration can be found the illustrious
names of Bichot, Spallanzani, W. F. Ed-
wards (whose work, "Influence des agens
physiques sur la vie,'' remains a monument
to scientific investigation and research).
The distinguished chemist Dumas has calcu-
lated that the oxygen consumed by all animal
life on the surface of our globe during one
hundred years would not amount to more
than j^QQ of the quantity in our atmosphere.
The human lungs have been described as
an aggregation of bronchial tubelets and air-
sacs. The air cells of the lungs are very
minute, and yet between every one of them
run the capillary blood vessels. It is here
that the interchange of gases takes place
through the delicate walls of the air-sacs and
capillaries, the blood giving up its carbonic
acid gas in exchange for oxygen.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 9
The lungs have a plentiful supply of
nerves, originating in both the cranial and
sympathetic systems. Some of these nerves
control respiration, which in the human be-
ing has a double function — the interchange
of gases between the blood and the atmos-
phere, and also, when respiration is normal,
the rhythmic vibration of all the organs of
the body.
It is respectfully suggested that the reader
now lay down this book and prove for him-
self or herself the meaning of the writer and
the simplicity of the method. It will take
about two weeks' time to break the old habit
of shallow breathing. The simplicity of the
method can he proved in two minutes!
Normal breathing involves the function of
smelling.
Stand by an open window, if convenient,
and in imagination smell a favorite flower
or fruit, or choice brand of cigar, on a long,
gentle inhalation, and it will be found that
the whole respiratory tract will respond
without muscular effort. This merely proves
that physical rhythm without muscular effort
is possible. The method is not complete,
however, without some special training for
10 Rhythmic Breathing plus
the nostrils and nasal cavities. ( See lessons
at end of book.)
Particular attention is called to photo-
graphs of children illustrating the next les-
son, whose defective breathing was entirely
overcome by two weeks' tuition, and whose
blood test proved a marvelous change in qual-
ity and activity. We note that after a short
tuition in this method the chest has a natural
tendency to remain high and expanded. All
chest diameters expand with normal rhythm,
and the lungs automatically change their
residual air without conscious muscular
effort.
The olfactory nerve bulb was undoubtedly
designed and placed by nature in close con-
nection zvith the nasal cavities, that it may
take an active part in the function of res-
piration as well as that of sensing odors. It
is more than probable that out of the great
atmospheric ocean, oxygen conveys to our
blood finer forces than its name implies.
Chemistry has not yet clearly defined oxygen,
but we have proof that every known sub-
stance on earth can be found in a rarefied
form in the atmosphere.
The chemistry and physiological action of
Olfactory Nerve Influence 11
many functions of the different nerve centers
is still somewhat obscure, but the action of
the olfactory nerve influence in controlling
and aiding the respiratory muscles cannot be
disproved, although very few physiologists
of the Western Hemisphere are familiar
with the nervous mechanism that controls
respiration.
The special office of respiration is oxygen-
ization of the blood. The presence of oxygen
in the human system is necessary to life. Its
vital activity is both creative and destructive.
Through the rhythmic process of inhalation
and exhalation, oxygen is constantly drawn
into the system with every breath and as con-
stantly exhaled (after its mysterious electro-
chemic interchange of gases in Nature's lab-
oratory) as carbonic acid gas.
If through defective or shallozv breathing
the blood does not get a normal supply of oxy-
gen, the process of cellular tissue building is
impaired or broken down, and there is a gen-
eral depression of all bodily functions.
LESSON 3
BETTER LUNG DEVELOPMENT FOR
CHILDREN
PLUS
OLFACTORY NERVE INFLUENCE
ON RESPIRATION
In talking to parents and teachers we base
our statements on incontrovertible facts.
First, we must recognize that we and our
bodies are separate entities, hence the body
can only express itself as far as we control
its functions.
Second, that breath is life, inasmuch as it
controls the double function of the blood
stream and the chemical affinity of the three
natural sources of life, i.e., air, food and
water.
Third, that a fertile source of nasal and
throat trouble among children originates in
a lack of physical resistance, caused by in-
sufficient lung development.
The prevention of nasal and pulmonary
tendencies rests largely in the hands of
mothers and school teachers, who, in the cul-
A RHYTHMIC BREATHER OF THREE YEARS
Olfactory Nerve Influence 13
tivation of better lung power and resistance
to disease in the little ones, hold the solution
to the greatest problem the modern world
has to face.
Let us consider the key to daily physical
regeneration, and plan that more should be
done for the daily care of the health of the
children in the homes and the kindergartens.
Take first the key to life itself — the function
of breathing.
Rhythmic breathing controls not only
the lung power and the double function
of the blood stream, but every organ
and nerve center in the body, including the
brains.
The nostrils and the mouth are the direct
gateways toward the lungs. The mouth is
the portal common to the chest and the ab-
domen, too often, alas, left ajar, but the nos-
trils were designed by Nature to have special
route to the lungs. It is always possible
through fear or ignorance to attach too much
importance to the germ theory of infection
and too little significance to resistance to
disease, which in normal health can easily be
made a daily habit. It is only in cases of run-
down, debilitated nerve force or impaired
14 Rhythmic Breathing plus
nutrition of the body that infection from any
source is possible.
Breath belongs to the involuntary func-
tions of the body, and a natural rhythm of
breathing which vibrates the whole body is
the birthright of every child of high or low
degree, but we of the Occident have lost this
rhythm, and although all children are born
with it, it is lost at a very early age through
imitation, habit, nasal troubles and mouth
breathing.
In spite of the enormous effort and large
expense connected with the education of pub-
lic school children in the item of physical
culture, it can readily be proved scientifically
and anatomically, that very few children, and
not all school-teachers, are using more than a
small percentage of their natural breathing
capacity. Even trained athletes in many in-
stances, from a lack of knowledge of Na-
ture's rhythm, are reversing the function of
the diaphragm, and overtaxing their lung
capacity.
"He who only half breathes only half lives."
Fortunately for the rising generation,
the natural rhythmic breath can easily be
A NATURAL BREATHER
WRONG WAY TO STAND AND WALK
Note the sunken chest, caused by shallow
breathing, the open lips, the lack of contour
and the ill-formed body.
MOUTH BREATHER. (Tcst CaSc)
(Common type in public schools)
Olfactory Nerve Influence 15
taught, and once re-established in the child
or adult, will take care of itself automatically
without conscious muscular effort.
Control of the breath means also control
of the nerves, and is the secret of the calm
stoicism, the dignity of bearing, the dynamic
energy and splendid physical endurance of
both sexes among the Oriental races.
Our conscious part in body building, such
as the selection of our environment, the air
we breathe, the effect of diet, etc., are im-
portant factors in their relation to the ner-
vous system and its control of nutrition.
Nervous exhaustion is very common
among brain workers of any class, and orig-
inates generally (apart from shock) in an
overtaxing of physical endurance. Every
effort, either mental or physical, involves the
expenditure of a certain amount of nerve
energy, which in normal health is readily
restored from day to day by proper attention
to air, food, sleep and hygiene. The circu-
latory system follows the nervous system
like its shadow, and while the nerves supply
the volition and motive power of our bodies,
it is the blood that supplies the nervous sys-
tem with nutrition, and as the quantity and
16 Rhythmic Breathing plus
quality of our blood is largely governed by
our habits of living, the air we breathe, the
food we eat and what we drink, we become to
some extent our own body builders or de-
stroyers.
A little practical investigation along these
lines will soon convince the most skeptical of
health and school board officials that not only
has the average school child acquired the
wrong method of breathing, and as a conse-
quence is only half alive, but that in one
month's time any normal child of any age
could be taught to re-establish his birthright
of rhythmic breath and make rapid gain in
weight and mental and physical growth.
One of the best-known high school prin-
cipals writes: "I am simply amazed at the
permanent benefit I have received from
rhythmic breathing. This is the greatest
thing that has come into my life as a regen-
erating force. I wish it might be taught to
all children. I am thoroughly of the belief
that it would eliminate the catarrhal and
pulmonary troubles characteristic of this
climate."
A well-known director of music in public
schools writes : ''I have investigated this sys-
SHALLOW BREATHER
(Starving for oxygen.) (Test case)
SAME CHILD, TWO WEEKS LATER
(Test case)
MOUTH BREATHER. (Test CaSc)
(Common type in public schools)
'predisposed" to tuberculosis child after two weeks
training in rhythmic breathing
Olfactory Nerve Influence 17
tern and believe it to be the most effective in
placing the voice (the speaking voice and
the singing voice).
"Moreover, I believe this rhythmic breath
can easily be re-established in children of any
age or grade and that it should be taught in
every school.
"No one can estimate the value of the
work to little children."
It is only recently the discovery has been
made that all physical regenerating forces
are correlated, and that the nervous and cir-
culatory systems are so closely related that
both are controlled by the rhythmic breath.
The writer is often asked for a definition of
rhythm in breathing.
In any good physiological sketch of the
lungs, it will be noticed that when fully ex-
panded the lower edges of the lungs rest
upon a slightly arched muscle called the dia-
phragm, a muscle that divides the chest and
its contents from those of the abdominal
cavity.
In the rhythmic breath with which Nature
endowed us all, hut which so many of us have
lost or reversed, the lower edges of the ex-
panded lungs press downward upon this
18 Rhythmic Breathing plus
arch, causing it with every inhalation to take
a rhythmic dip into the abdominal cavity,
thus creating a slight movement or vibration
of the contents of the abdomen and at the
same time compelling a slight outward ex-
pansion of the abdominal walls. This move-
ment is simultaneous in correct breathing
with an outward expansion of all the chest
diameters.
This rhythm was designed by Nature to
govern nerve energy and the blood supply.
Once re-established in the child or adult, it is
one of the few things in life that becomes
automatic and permanent.
If this explanation is not clear, notice the
rhythm of a baby's bare body after its bath.
In the child's unconscious expression of life
it will readily be realized that rhythm is the
baby's birthright.
The mysterious processes of ''the house we
live in" are so stupendous in their complex-
ity that the poet Arnold in his "Light of
Asia" has well described them as "wonder-
ful, subtle, sacred."
For the people of the Western world we do
not advocate the Yogi system of breathing,
so commonly used for concentration and
SHALLOW BREATHER
(Starving for oxygen)
SAME BOY, AFTER THREE WEEKS' TUITION IN RHYTHMIC
BREATHING. (Tcst cQse. All tcst cascs are made under
Board of Health supervision)
A DEFECTIVE BREATHER
(Before)
SAME GIRL
(After two weeks' tuition in rhythmic breathing)
Olfactory Nerve Influence 19
meditation exercises by the monks and as-
cetics of the religious brotherhoods of India.
The word Yogi means "to join together."
It is connected with breathing exercises in
India for arousing the psychic or spiritual
side of the nature, and is only suited to people
who are no longer concerned with the hurry
of labor and rush of feet in the work-a-day
world.
In India the Yogi breath is used ex-
clusively by those qualifying for the religious
life.
For further elucidation on better lung de-
velopment for children, study carefully pre-
ceding chapter on Olfactory Nerve Influence
on Respiration. The cuts accompanying this
chapter are test cases of recent date. For
details see end of book.
LESSON 4
FIRST AID FOR PREVENTION OF
CATARRH AND PULMONARY
AFFECTIONS
"We grasp at shadows, and lose the substance." — Handel.
In a pamphlet recently published by a lay
organization in a large city for the use of
teachers on the prevention of tuberculosis,
one reads: ''The struggle with tuberculosis
demands the mobilization of all social forces,
public and private, official and voluntary,"
and the statement is made that tuberculosis
is not hereditary, contagious, or incurable;
then follow some suggestions with regard to
diet, habits and care of the consumptive;
street cleaning, and methods for prevention,
etc. And yet, although these instructions
are issued for the use of school-teachers, not
a word is said, or suggestion made, as to cor-
rect breathing for children — the only really
scientific key to the prevention of pulmonary
troubles and tuberculosis generally.
It is a well-established fact that even in
Olfactory Nerve Influence 21
these days every child is born using its full
lung capacity. It loses this power in its
early school days, through lack of care and
training on the part of its parents and teach-
ers, and as a consequence grows up using
only about one-sixth part of its lung capacity.
Unfortunately, through lack of knowledge,
many of the parents and teachers are doing
no better than the children in the matter of
breathing, the majority of them using their
upper chest breath instead of the full lung
rhythm. The rhythmic breath, which every
one is born with, means a constant, though
subconscious, rhythm of the whole body, by
which the lungs gain more elasticity, and a
rhythmic descent of the diaphragm is com-
pelled zvith every breath. This moves every
internal organ and controls the circulation
of the blood, and enables the lungs to elim-
inate, without undue chest expansion, about
thirty per cent, of the waste material of the
body in the form of poisonous vapor, which
is constantly generating in the system
through its electro-chemic processes. There
are only three sources of life — food, air and
water — breathing controls them all.
Respiratory exercises and correct breath-
22 Rhythmic Breathing plus
ing is an absolute preventative of pulmo-
nary troubles.
As a result of the author's studies in the
far East, now embodied in a simple, though
scientific, ''Method for the Millions," who
only half breathe, any one can readily learn
how to re-establish (without muscular
effort) the rhythmic breath which is our
birthright. We have no hesitation in making
this statement, because this knowledge of
correct breathing w^as gained during a long
sojourn in a country inhabited by about four
hundred million people, where children are
taught the daily habit of full lung inflation
as a religious duty, and it goes without say-
ing that nasal diseases and pulmonary
troubles among these people are compara-
tively rare, and this in a tropical climate,
where lack of water and proper sanitation
make it one of the most undesirable on earth.
Metchnikoff in his book, 'The Nature of
Man," endeavors to solve the problem of old
age by calling our attention to the phago-
cytes which exist from birth to death in the
human body in uncountable numbers, and
whose function in the "house fashioned for
man" make them "the scavengers of the
Olfactory Nerve Influence 23
human system." In normal health these
phagocytes kill all the invading disease
germs and devour them. A part of their
function also is to rebuild impaired tissues
and to prevent the entrance of disease germs
into the blood stream. When by correct
breathing and dieting we keep the blood nor-
mal in its quality and activity, wt give the
phagocytes less to do, and can thus utilize
their energy in the cellular nutrition of the
body and give ourselves no anxiety about
the advancing years.
In the upbuilding of the human body man
has more hidden forces to contend with than
mere bacteria. He has v^ithin himself elec-
tro-chemic processes in constant activity
which are stupendous in their complexity.
Brunton says, in his "Lectures on the
Action of Medicines," "the saliva in some
stages of disease in man is as poisonous as
the venom of a serpent, and the juices of
various human glands, when injected di-
rectly into the blood, will kill an animal as
quickly as a rifle bullet."
In "Man and His Poisons," Dr. Abrams
says, "The human body is a laboratory of
deadly poisons — hydrochloric acid in the
24 Rhythmic Breathing plus
stomach, potassium sulpho-cyanide in the
saHva, and phosphorus in the blood and
bones." And yet in normal health all these
are rendered innocuous by physiologic meta-
bolism— in other words, electro-chemic en-
ergy. ^ ^
It is only in cases of debilitated or im-
paired nutrition that infection from any
source is possible.
There are only three sources of life — food,
water and fresh air, and the nearer the con-
sumptive gets to the magnetized bosom of
mother earth, lives the simple life, eats
simple food, throws alcohol and physic to th6
dogs, and inbreathes the sun-electrified atmos-
phere until his whole being rhythms and pul-
sates with oxygen, laden with life principles
(generated every moment of time through
solar and terrestrial affinity), the better
chance he has for a complete recovery. The
germ of tuberculosis is no respecter of per-
sons. No disease is more fatal. It causes
more deaths annually than any known dis-
ease. The tubercle bacilli — ten thousand
of which can crowd into one inch of space —
take nearly a year to fully develop in the
human body, but five hours' exposure to
Olfactory Nerve Influence 25
strong light will kill them. The disease is
infections and a source of great public dan-
ger, especially in overcrowded districts. All
who are interested in its cause and preven-
tion should have the earnest support of the
public. Parents should never neglect the
tendency of children to catch cold easily.
Prevention is better than cure, and the nat-
ural guardians of children should especially
teach them the value of deep breathing and
personal hygiene. In children predisposed
to lung trouble, ordinary colds sometimes
run into tuberculosis. Signs of early stages
are fever, increasing debility, loss of weight,
flushed cheeks, unusually bright eyes, cough
and poor appetite. It is an encouraging sign
of progress that the masses are beginning
to be willing to be educated in the matter
of personal hygiene and prevention of dis-
ease. In former days disease w^as tolerated
and looked upon as a special dispensation of
providence.
One of the best aids for the prevention of
this loathsome disease is the spread of
knowledge among the masses. They must
be taught how to take a hand in ''first aid,"
and be educated in the simple laws of health.
26 Rhythmic Breathing plus
Up to date there is no known drug that will
cure tuberculosis. Expert knowledge has
too long been obscured in technicalities. The
time is already here when medical mien have
laid aside some of the old-time prejudices.
The day is not far distant when it will no
longer be a part of medical ethics to write a
prescription for a simple pill in a classic
language.
Medical men of the twentieth century are
gaining more social and scientific recognition
than at any period of the world's history, and
apart from their indefatigable research
along the lines of cause and cure of tuber-*
culosis, are nobly taking their share in edu-
cating the masses for its prevention.
How necessary, then, to have our children
taught something of the marvelous phenom-
ena, of momentary occurrence, in their own
bodies; of the origin of the two sources of
physical life, and how correct and natural
breathing controls them both, and that nor-
mal health is a matter of self-building.
Let us, too, teach the rising generation of
human toilers that if they must crowd into
big cities to fill the demands of corporations
for labor, to exact a rightful claim to decent
Olfactory Nerve Influence 27
housing, even in tenements, to insist on pure
water for drinking and a goodly supply for
bathing purposes, hygienic environment and
less adulteration in food, better ventilation
in the workshops, shorter hours for women
and children, more open spaces for children's
playgrounds, and, above all, to claim that
the health departments of cities prevent
the awful menace to health by pollution of
the atmosphere, caused by dust, filthy streets,
noxious gases and the use of bituminous fuel.
Ways and means for full combustion of fuel
are cheap, and railroad authorities, manu-
facturers and others should be compelled by
law to do their share in cleaning up the
atmosphere of the city that the lungs of the
poor may have fair play.
LESSON 5
THE CELLULAR PROCESS OF BODY
BUILDING, AND HOW IT IS GOV-
ERNED BY OUR HABITS
OF LIVING
"Nature has done her best; do thou thine." — Milton.
Modern science has conclusively proved
that all forces are correlated, and that the
creative and destructive forces are equally
active in the human system.
There is no longer any scientific doubt
about the cellular reconstruction of the hu-
man body. The microscope proves that the
human body is composed of myriads of
smaller bodies, or cells, uncountable num-
bers of which are in constant activity, either
breaking down or reconstructing, each class
of cells having functions all its own, not all
of which are, even in this twentieth century,
fully understood. But there is no longer any
doubt that the life of each cell is very short,
and that human life depends on the constant
reconstruction of healthy cells.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 29
Our habits of living naturally affect this
process. Self-control and well-directed en-
ergy exercise a powerful though silent in-
fluence over the cellular process of body
building.
The English poet, Tennyson, in his poem
called 'The Leper," gives a very gloomy
view of the human body. He speaks of it
as "the rib-grated dungeon of the soul," as
"a little city of sewers, with all its wants
and needs, no greater than the beast," and
bewails the ills that flesh is heir to.
Another English poet, in happier mood,
writes :
''Not mean, nor base, but of God's best
upbuilding, is this house fashioned for man
— the city of nine gates, wonderful, subtle,
sacred."
We should never lose sight of the fact that
it is possible to have a healthy body and to
cultivate a happy, sunny temperament.
Except in cases of hereditary disease, we
are undoubtedly largely responsible for the
health or disease of our bodies.
When we permit the grosser instincts and
appetites of the flesh to gain the ascendency,
body rules the soul, and obscures or hinders
30 Rhythmic Breathing plus
its development ; for how can the soul attain
its heights if its earthly limit is dwarfed by
impure desire and uncontrolled appetites,
which, alas, are too often the real cause of
pain and disease.
It rests with us to keep the river of life
properly supplied with life principles, through
atmospheric contact and proper food, and to
see that its channels and byways are kept
free from accumulating debris.
The all-wise Creator designed for our
bodies a more marvelously perfect system of
irrigation, drainage and sewerage than mor-
tal mind has ever dreamed of, and by which
it was intended the natural waste products
of the body should be carried off, but which,
through ignorance, and sometimes wilful
neglect, are allowed to accumulate in the
system and become a fertile source of dis-
ease.
In nearly every instance the impaired
function of the stomach is the starting point
for disease of the whole system, because
every cell, nerve, fiber and tissue of the body
depends for its nutrition upon the quality
of the material absorbed from the blood.
Overwork, a deficient supply of food, and
Olfactory Nerve Influence 31
lack of sufficient outdoor life delays and im-
pairs the processes of nutrition seriously.
In normal health our blood is always prop-
agating myriads of living warriors called
phagocytes, who combine the triple duties
of war on invading germs, building and re-
pairing tissue, and helping to dispose of the
debris in the blood stream.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE BODY
It used to be dimly conceded that the
human body changed, or was made over,
about once in seven years ; we know now that
it is changing every moment of time until
our last breath ends the process of momen-
tary building up or breaking down. All of
Nature's forces are correlated. And the cre-
ative and destructive forces (in normal
health) are equally active in the human
system.
Professor Metchnikoff (of Pasteur Insti-
tute, Paris) may be considered as among the
most distinguished living authorities on all
sorts and conditions of microbes. His recent
microscopic discoveries prove that the blood
stream of the living body swarm with un-
countable numbers of red and white cor-
32 Rhythmic Breathing plus
puscles. The red predominate in number,
and their function is said to be to convey
oxygen from the lungs to the tissues (it is
more than Hkely they have a double function,
but that remains to be proved). The v^hite
corpuscles vary in shape and independence of
movement. They are constantly pervading
all the tissues of the body, apparently search-
ing for germs of disease, which it is their
special function to destroy and devour. Pro-
fessor Metchnikoff believes it is possible to
develop in the human system harmless and
beneficial microbes that would arrest pre-
cocious senility. He believes they can be
found in buttermilk and sour milk, the use
of which he says would be a useful ad-
junct in a simple dietary. He also advocates
abstinence from alcohol, animal food and
uncooked fruit for those no longer young.
Modern science is advancing the theory that
superfluous food in the system is the cause
of arterial degeneration, and it is believed
that further investigations along the lines
of bacteriological research will discover the
germ of old age and means for its destruc-
tion.
// disease and old age are caused by in-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 33
activity of the blood stream and lack of oxy-
gen, it is a rational supposition that disease
can be prevented and old age postponed by
a sufficient supply of oxygen to keep all the
lung cells in constant use.
The rhythmic law of expansion and con-
traction is far reaching. It not only controls
the equipoise of the universe, but rhythm in
breathing regulates the blood stream and all
the organs of secretion and elimination of
the human body.
The latest scientific research classes bac-
teria as among the most active but lowest
order of vegetation, chiefly fungi.
They begin existence as single-cell
growths and multiply by a process called fis-
sion, which means that after a short period
of growth a fissure divides the original cell.
They are infinitesimally small, live by ab-
sorption, and reproduce themselves at a very
early stage in their history; some reproduce
in spores, or tiny seed-like granules, none of
which are visible to the naked eye. Some
germs multiply every thirty minutes, which
means a propagation of almost inconceivable
rapidity. Under the microscope, bacteria
differs in form. Some are spiral, some look
34 Rhythmic Breathing plus
like tiny dots or pin-heads, others Hke tiny
tubes with round or pointed ends; germs of
tropical diseases differ in form from those
of cooler climates. Some germs exist only
in dead or decaying vegetable matter ; others
exist only in the tissues, lymphatics and
blood stream of the human being.
Like all seed life, they can only exist in
suitable soil and environment. The prac-
tical prevention of disease lies not so much
in fighting bacteria as in controlling and
fortifying the process of body building
against its invasion.
When the circulation of the blood becomes
sluggish, there is too little activity of the
capillary system, which is closely connected
with the circulation of the whole body.
Also, not far beneath the skin, the body is
covered with a wondrous network of minut-
est tubings, ending in myriads of pores,
through which, in the form of perspiration,
a large amount of waste material should be
daily thrown off from the system.
Sudden closing or congestion of these
pores of the skin is the cause of colds, and
many of the ills which flesh is heir to ; hence
the imperative necessity for keeping the nat-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 35
ural drainage of the body in unimpaired con-
dition.
Scientific investigation proves that only
one or two per cent, of people in the
Occident use their full lung capacity.
Only very strong people breathe deeply,
or compel the constant rhythmic de-
scent of the diaphragm with every breath.
In India the elephant is everywhere recog-
nized as the symbol of power, and he is the
slowest-breathing animal on earth, taking
only about five or six respirations a minute;
and as the blood depends upon the breath
for the most important of its vital principles,
and the act of breathing makes us one with
pure atmosphere, or the reeking poison of ill-
ventilated rooms, it rests with ourselves to
govern the quality and quantity of the air
we breathe, as well as the appropriation to
ourselves of a larger or lesser amount of its
life-giving principles. By correct breathing
we govern every function of the body, in-
creasing their activity, and controlling their
processes; respiratory exercises are abso-
lutely necessary in preventing disease and
to help the lungs exhale and eliminate
poisons constantly generating through elec-
trp-chemic action in the system,
36 Rhythmic Breathing plus
It is more practical and rational to rec-
ognize a diseased condition, and help it, than
it is merely to think we can get well by deny-
ing its existence.
From the earliest ages, people of the far
East have understood the great electrical
energy bound up. in the sun, its influence on
the atmosphere of our world and health of
the human race.
In manuscripts scratched with thorns upon
green palm leaves thousands of years ago
the sun is given a thousand names of ado-
ration. He is described as a chariot of fire,
with three wheels, one hot, one light, and one
electrical, and as being driven with seven
horses, each of a different color, symbolic of
the solar spectrum. They consider our earth
its negative pole, and teach that nearly every
known substance of the earth is found float-
ing in the atmosphere in a rarefied form, at-
tracted thither by solar energy and held there
in chemical affinity with other life-giving
elements. And, because they have such a
profound understanding of these laws, the
Hindus believe that breath is life, which is
why they attach such importance to the nor-
mal rhythm of breathing.
LESSON 6
"SIMPLIFIED" DIETETICS
"Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth
With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,
Covering the earth with odors, fruits, and flocks,
Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,
But all to please and sate the curious taste?" . . .
— Milton's "Comus."
Sir Henry Thompson has said ^'almost
all diet reformers have been extreme in
their views, and most of them have died
early."
In selecting our diet it is well to remem-
ber that of the fourteen elements that
constitute the human body, it is not difficult
to find them in very simple foods — for ex-
ample, a grain of wheat contains every one
of them.
Diet should be studied in order that we
may combine in suitable selection to indi-
vidual needs, the phosphates which are
needed in the blood, as nutrient to brain,
bones and nerves, the nitrates for muscle
building, and carbonates for necessary heat.
Food stuffs have all come to be classed
3S Rhythmic Breathing plus
under three headings: Proteids, carbo-
hydrates and fats.
Professor Russell H. Chittenden, director
of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale
University, Department of Physiological
Chemistry, has recently given to the public
the result of the many important dietary ex-
periments he has been engaged upon for the
last six years. As the result of scientific in-
vestigation he has become convinced that
the average person eats far too much meat
and that we all eat too rapidly. He does
not believe in vegetarianism or Fletcherism,
but advocates variety in diet, a diet based
on the body's real needs.
Professor Chittenden says: "The facts
bearing on food requirements, especially
those that relate to the need for proteid food,
are seemingly harmonious in indicating that
the physiological necessities of the body are
fully met by a much more temperate use of
food than is commonly practiced.
''Dietary standards based on the habits
and usages of prosperous communities are
not in accord with the data furnished by
exact physiological experimentation. Nitrog-
enous equilibrium can be maintained on
Olfactory Nerve Influence 39
quantities of proteid food fully fifty per cent,
less than the every-day habits of mankind
imply to be necessary, and this without in-
creasing unduly the consumption of non-
nitrogenous food/'
The experiments at Yale by Professor
Irving Fisher, by which he showed that the
meat eaters employed in those experiments
had less endurance than vegetarians, have
been widely accepted as arguments in favor
of vegetarianism, but the most significant
experiments were those in which the won-
derful increase of endurance which followed
all cases where thorough mastication of food
was practiced. Professor Fisher does not ad-
vocate vegetarianism. He says on this point,
that meat is sometimes essential, and experi-
ments indicate that complete vegetarianism
is entirely successful in some cases and quite
disastrous in others. Vegetarianism is an
exclusive vegetable diet, and arguments in
its favor are mainly ethical or sentimental.
What is really needed is a varied mixed diet.
The main thing to avoid in selecting one's
nutrition is the habit of eating large quanti-
ties of proteid or tissue-building food. While
the proteids are almost indispensable in
40 Rhythmic Breathing plus
body building, it is possible that after the
average growth has been attained proteids
are not completely utilized by the body and
increase the waste matter in the system, giv-
ing the liver and kidneys much extra work,
thus rendering the body less able to resist
disease.
Professor Chittenden says: *'The appear-
ance, odor and palatability of food are fac-
tors of prime importance in its utilization by
the body, and that the aesthetics of eating are
not to be ignored, since they have an impor-
tant influence upon the flow of the digestive
secretions. A peaceful mind, pleasurable
anticipation, freedom from care and anxiety,
cheerful companionship, all form desirable
table accessories, which play the part of true
psychical or mental stimuli in accelerating
the flow of the digestive juices. Thorough
mastication prolongs mechanical stimulation
of the salivary glands and thus increases the
flow of the secretion."
As a digestive secretion, saliva serves sev-
eral important purposes. By moistening the
food it renders mastication and swallowing
easy. Its natural alkalinity tends to neutral-
ize such acidity as may be present in the food.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 41
It dissolves various solid substances, thus
making a solution capable of stimulating the
taste nerves. Last and most important, it
has a marked digestive and solvent action on
starchy foods. A large proportion of the
food, other than meat, eggs, etc., consumed
by the average person is composed of some
form of starch, and this the body cannot
make use of until it has undergone con-
version into soluble forms, such as dextrins
and sugars. This it is the function of saliva
to accomplish.
Horace Fletcher's dietetic rule reads, ''Do
not eat w^hen you are mad or sad, only when
you are glad."
Horace Fletcher was the first practical
demonstrator of the science of simple living
which now bears his name. He, too, experi-
mented at Yale University under the direc-
tion of Professor Russell H. Chittenden.
Three groups of men — a company of regular
United States soldiers, a number of profes-
sors and some athletes in training — lived on
a simple restrictive diet for six months.
They were all stronger at the end of the ex-
periment than they were at the beginning,
and their working efficiency was increased
42 Rhythmic Breathing plus
from fifty to two hundred per cent. The
most important development of Fletcherism
of recent date has been the report of Dr. Hu-
bert Higgins, of May 20 and 27, 1905, in the
London Lancet, on the chewing and swallow-
ing apparatus in man, which corroborates a
most important anatomical discovery made
by Mr. Fletcher some years ago of what he
termed a food filter in man, situated at the
back of the mouth. Later investigation
of this method by professors of universities
abroad and at home by the aid of recording
appliances proves that there is a discrim-
inating or filtering mechanism at the back of
the mouth, which works perfectly in its selec-
tion of food suited for digestion and assim-
ilation when conditions are normal. The
writer begs leave to call attention to the fact
that fresh and constantly changing air, laden
with its life-giznng oxygen, is not ordinarily
classed with food, but without it there can be
no perfect electro-chemic assimilation of
food structures in the blood.
Professor Dr. Lloyd M. Campbell, New
York County Medical Society, says: 'The
character of a person's food should vary with
age, climate, season, occupation and tem-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 43
perament. No one system of diet or class
of food is adapted for all. Food as a builder
of brain and nerve tissue wields a direct in-
fluence on character, the failure to prop-
erly nourish the brain or reinforce the nerve
centers resulting very often in the complete
change of a man's personality."
A, E. Baines, an English authority on food
reform, has demonstrated by means of a gal-
vanometer of remarkable sensitiveness, that
all fruits, nuts and vegetables are, while
alive, storage batteries of electricity. When
they die or are killed by cooking, the insula-
tion between the negative and the positive
systems is destroyed. In an orange, Mr.
Baines asserts, each alternate section is a
charged cell, which will cause the galvano-
meter to record a current.
Dr. Alexander Haig, of London, has
shown that uric acid, which abounds in flesh
foods, can also be found to a limited extent
in the hulls of beans and grain and to a
larger extent in tea, coffee and cocoa.
It should be remembered, then, that uric
acid, like other toxic products, may be
formed in the system even if no meat is
eaten. Some people condemn the use of
44 RJiythmic Breathing plus
meat altogether, and claim that flesh is not
fit to eat under any circumstances. Against
that many dieticians will agree, especially in
cases of convalescence, that liquid meat
broths or beef tea can be assimilated when
the stomach cannot retain ordinary food.
All dietetics are subject to exceptions and
qualifications according to circumstances.
As a rule, acids are the most frequent cause
of disturbed digestion of any class of dietetic
agents.
A white coated tongue is always the first
sign of an acid stomach. When persistent,
acid-producing elements, such as fruit acids,
should be eliminated from the diet, and fruit
should only be eaten in its cooked form.
The question of diet is one that is attract-
ing a great deal of public attention. On all
sides the claim is made by modern writers
that people eat too much. That depends, of
course, on what class of people the writers
have in mind.
One-half the world may be suffering from
disturbed digestion due to over-eating and
indulgence of the appetites. The chances
are, however, that the other half rarely get
enough to eat, especially of properly selected
foods.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 45
Mental and moral degeneracy exists to an
alarming extent in industrial centers where
child-labor is tolerated, as a direct residt of
poverty and insufficient food. Recent avail-
able data, tend to prove that not less than
two million of children of school age in the
United States alone are victims of poverty,
which deny them the common necessities of
life. Such statistics give us food for thought.
In the human body nutrition serves two dis-
tinct purposes, which are always in constant
affinity — the constant reconstruction of cel-
lular tissue and the renewal of vital energy.
The three great reservoirs from which the
human being draws for its existence are air,
food and water. Of these, air — because of
its electrical principles — is by far the most
important. The better we breathe, the more
we get of its vital energy for utilizing in our
blood the chemical changes of our food prod-
ucts. Proper nutrition is not wholly pos-
sible, even with choicest selection of food,
unless sufficient oxygen is inspired.
It is an interesting fact that no matter
what our weight may be, its bulk is always
(in normal health) two-thirds water. There-
fore, aside from water contained in all food
46 Rhythmic Breathing plus
stuff, we should drink water freely. Always
boil and cool water if there is any question
as to its purity. The Oriental never tastes
raw water, which is why even in this country
John Chinaman always keeps up a goodly
supply of weak tea. Water is both a solvent
and the distributer and regulator of the heat
of the body.
"There is no agent,'' writes Dr. James
Wilson, "applied to the human body, exter-
nally or internally, that has such influence in
awakening all the vital powers to their great
restorative capabilities, in arresting the prog-
ress of disease or preventing a fatal termi-
nation as pure water. Administered at vari-
ous temperatures, it is the most powerful
remedy we possess as a stimulant, a sedative,
a diuretic, a sudorific. When we turn to the
physiological construction, either of man or of
the lower animal, we discover nothing that can
lead us to conceive the necessity for any other
fluid than that which nature has provided."
The simplicity of the diet of the Orientals
is the basis of their physical endurance and
unusual recuperative power. The writer has
in mind two Chinese laboring men, who were
in a hospital in this country under treatment,
Olfactory Nerve Influence 47
one for fractured skull and the other a
double fracture of the leg. Neither of them
were young or over-nourished, but each made
a rapid and perfect recovery on a most simple
diet. For the first week nothing was given
them but rice water of varying thickness.
Later boiled rice and a little gravy and
cooked fruits. Very weak tea, hot or cold,
fruit juices and boiled water were the only
beverages.
Pythagoras lived and taught the simple
life and diet six hundred years before Christ.
In all topics of vital interest history repeats
itself in cycles. 600 B. C. Pythagoras was
known in his day not only as a great natural-
ist and philosopher, but as the greatest au-
thority on the subject of health through diet
and exercise and control of breath. He es-
tablished a system of simple dietetics and
taught prevention rather than cure of dis-
ease. He advocated a general use of milk,
honey, grains, fruits, roots, vegetables, etc.,
and especially a liberal use of pure water.
The following table prepared by the United
States Department of Agriculture, Wash-
ington, D. C, gives average composition of
common American food products:
48
Rhytlimic Breathing plus
Table prepared by U. S. Government. Dppt. of Agriculture, Wash, D. C.
TABLE I
Average Composition of Common American Food Products
Food Materials
(as purchased)
Ref-
use
Water
animal food
Beef, fresh:
Chuck ribs
Flank
Loin
Porterhouse Steak
Sirloin Steak
Neck
Ribs
Rib rolls
Round
Rump
Shank, fore
Shoulder and clod
Fore quarter
Hind quarter
Beef, corned, canned, pickled
and dried:
Corned beef
Tongue, pickled
Dried, salted and smoked.
Canned boiled beef
Canned corned beef
Veal:
Breast
Leg
Leg cutlets
Fore quarter
Hind quarter
Mutton:
Flank
Leg, hind
Loin chops
Fore quarter
Hind quar., without tallow.
Lamb:
Breast
Leg, hind
Pork, fresh:
Ham
Loin chops
Shoulder
Tenderloin
Pork, salted, cured, pickled:
Ham, smoked
Shoulder, smoked
Salt pork
Bacon, smoked
Sausage:
Bologna
Pork
Frankfort
Soups:
Celery, cream of
Beef
Per
cent,
16.3
10.'.'
13.3
12.7
12.8
27.6
20.8
7.2
20.7
36.9
16.4
18.7
15.7
8.4
6.0
4.7
21.3
14.2
3.4
24.5
20.7
9.9
18.4
16.0
21.2
17.8
19.1
17.4
10.7
19.7
12.4
13.6
18.2
7.7
3.3
Per
cent.
52.6
54.0
52.5
52.4
54.0
45.9
43.8
63.9
60.7
45.0
42.9
56.8
49.1
50.4
49.2
58.9
53.7
51.8
51.8
52.0
60.1
6S.3
54.2
56.2
39.0
51.2
42.0
41.6
45.4
45.5
52.9
48.0
41.8
44 9
66.5
34.8
36.8
7.9
17.4
55.2
39 8
57.2
88.6
92.9
Pro-
tein
Per
cent.
15.5
17.(1
16.1
19.1
16.5
14.5
13.9
19.3
19.0
13.8
12.8
16.4
14.5
15.4
14.3
11.9
26.4
25.5
26.3
15.4
15.5
20.1
15 1
16.2
13.8
15.1
13.5
12.3
13.8
15.4
15.9
13.5
13.4
12.0
18.9
14.2
13 0
1.9
9 1
18.2
13.0
19.6
2.1
4 4
Fat
Per
cent.
15.0
19.0
17.5
17.9
16.1
11.9
21.2
16.7
12.8
20.2
7.3
9 8
17.5
18.3
23.8
19.2
6.9
22 5
18.7
11.0
7.9
7.5
6.0
6.6
36.9
14.7
28.3
24.5
23.2
19.1
13.6
25.9
24.2
29.8
13.0
as. 4
26.6
86.2
62.2
19.7
44.2
18.6
2.8
.4
<j2
Ash
Per
cent.
1.1
1.1
5.1
1.1
0.8
4.6
4.3
8.9
1.3
4.0
.8
.9
1.0
.7
.9
.8
.8
.7
1.0
Fuel
Value
per
Pound
Per Calo-
cerit. ries
1.5
1.2
910
1.105
1,025
1,100
975
1,165
1,135
1.055
890
1,090
545
715
995
1,045
1,245
1,010
■ 790
1,410
1,270
745
625
695
535
580
1,770
890
1,415
1,2.35
1,210
1,075
860
1,320
1,345
1,450
895
1,6?5
1,335
3,555
2,715
1,155
2,075
1,155
235
120
Olfactory Nerve Influence
TABLE I — Continued
49
Food Materials
(as purchased)
Ref-
use
Water
Pro-
teiu
Fat
Oj=
Ash
Fuel
Value
per
Pound
ANIMAL FOOD — Continued
Soups:
Meat stew
Tomato
Poultry:
Chicken, broilers
Fowls
Goose
Turkey
Fish:
Cod. dressed
Halibut, steaks or sections.
Mackerel, whole
Perch, yellow, dressed....
Shad, whole
Shad, roe
Fish, preserved:
Cod, salt
Herring, smoked
Fish, canned:
Salmon
Sardines
Shellfish:
Oysters, "solids"
Clams
Crabs
Lobsters
Eggs : Hen's eggs
Dairy products, etc. :
Butter
Whole milk
Skim milk
Buttermilk
Condensed milk
Cream
Cheese, cheddar
Cheese, full cream
VEGETABLE FOOD
Flour, meal, etc. :
Entire-wheat flour
Graham flour
Wheat flour, patent roller
process —
High-grade and medium. ..
Low-grade
Macaroni, vermicelli, etc. .
Wheat breakfast food
Buckwheat flour
Rye flour
Corn meal
Oat breakfast food
Rice
Tapioca
Starch
Bread, pastry, etc. :
White bread
Per
cent.
41.6
25.9
17.6
22.7
29.9
17.7
44.7
35.1
50.1
24.9
44.4
*5.0
52.4
61.7
+11.2
Per
cent.
84.5
90.0
4.3.7
47.1
38.5
42.4
58.5
61.9
40.4
50.7
35.2
71.2
40.2
19.2
68.5
53.6
88.3
80.8
.36.7
30.7
65.5
11 0
87.0
90 5
91.0
26.9
74.0
27.4
34.2
11.4
11.3
12.0
12.0
10.3
9.6
13.6
12.9
12.5
7.7
12.3
11.4
.35.3
Per
cent.
4.6
1.8
12.8
13.7
13.4
16.1
11.1
15.3
10.2
12.8
9.4
20.9
16.0
20.5
21.8
23.7
6.0
10.6
7.9
5.9
13.1
1.0
3.3
3.4
3.0
8.8
2».5
27.7
25.9
13.8
13.3
11.4
14.0
13.4
12.1
6.4
6.8
9.2
16.7
8.0
.4
9.2
Per
cent.
4.3
1.1
1.4
12.3
29.8
18.4
.2
4.4
4.2
.7
4.8
3.8
12.1
12.1
1.3
1.1
.9
.7
9.3
85.0
4.0
.3
.5
8.3
18.5
36.8
33.7
1.9
2.2
1.0
1.9
.9
1.8
1.2
0.9
1.9
7.3
.3
.1
Per
cent.
5.5
5.6
2.6
3.3
5.2
.6
.2
5.0
5 1
4.8
54.1
4.5
4.1
2.4
71.9
71.4
75.1
71.2
74.1
75.2
77.9
78.7
75.4
66.2
79.0
88 0
90.0
Per Calo-
cent, ries
1.1
1.5
.7
.7
.7
.9
.7
.9
.7
1.5
18.5
7.4
2.6
5.3
1.1
2.3
1.5
.8
0.9
3.0
.7
.7
.7
1.9
.5
4 0
3.8
1.0
1.8
.5
.9
1.3
1.3
.9
.7
1.0
2.1
.4
.1
1.3 53.1 • 1.1 1,200
365
185
305
765
1,475
1,060
220
475
370
275
380
600
325
755
915
950
225
340
200
145
635
3,410
810
165
160
1,4.30
865
2.075
1,885
1,6.50
1,645
1,635
1,640
1,645
1.680
1,605
1,620
1,635
1,800
1,620
1,6.50
1,675
^Refuse, oil.
tRefuse, shell.
50
Rhythmic Breathing plus
TABLE I-
—Continued
Food Materials
(as purchased)
Ref-
use
Water
Pro-
tein
Fat
1 **
O rt
CI >,
Ash
Fuel
Value
per
Pound
VEGETABLE FOOD — Continued
Bread, pastry, etc. :
Brown bread
Per
cent.
Per
cent.
43.6
35.7
38.4
35.7
19.9
6.8
4.8
5.9
Per
cent.
5.4
8.9
9.7
9.0
6.3
9.7
11.3
9.8
Per
cent.
1.8
1.8
.9
.6
9.0
12.1
10.5
9.1
Per
cent.
47.1
.52.1
49.7
53.2
63.3
69.7
70.5
73.1
70.0
96.0
81.0
100.0
71.4
59.6
22.0
6.9
7.7
4.8
2.6
19.7
2.6
2.5
6.8
8.9
10.8
62.0
16.9
60.8
14.7
2.2
21.9
3.2
4.5
3.9
5.7
19.6
9.8
19.0
18.6
4.0
10.8
Per
cent.
2.1
1.5
1.3
1.5
1.5
1.7
2.9
2.1
3.5
1.7
.7
.9
.9
.8
.7
.4
.8
1.2
.5
1.1
2.9
1.0
3.4
.8
.4
.9
2.1
.4
.5
.6
2.1
1.1
.9
.9
.6
0.3
Calo-
ries
1,040
1,195
1,130
1,170
1,630
1 925
Graham bread
Whole-wheat bread
Rye bread
Cake
Cream crackers
Oyster crackers
1,910
1,875
1,225
1,680
Soda crackers
Sugars, etc. :
Molasses
Candy*
Honey
1,420
Sugar, granulated
1,750
Maple syrup
1,250
Vegetables :t
Beans, dried
12.6
68.5
83.0
70.0
77.7
75.6
75.4
81.1
80.5
88.1
78 9
66.4
9.5
74.6
13.0
62.6
56.6
55.2
92.3
44.2
94.3
62.7
68.9
85.3
76.1
75.9
94.0
63.3
22.5
7.1
2.1
1 3
1.4
.9
3.1
.7
1.0
3.5
1.4
1.3
24.6
7.0
21.4
1.8
.4
1.4
2.1
.7
.9
.9
6.9
3.6
2.8
3.6
1.2
0.3
1.8
.7
.3
.1
.2
.1
1.1
.2
.2
.4
.3
.4
1.0
0.5
1.4
.1
.4
.6
.3
.2
.4
.1
2.5
.2
1.2
1.0
.2
0.3
1,520
540
Beans, Lima, shelled
Beans, string
7.0
20.0
15.0
20.0
170
Beets
160
115
Cabbage
Celery
65
Corn, green (sweet), ed-
ible portion
440
Cucumbers
15.0
15.0
65
Lettuce
65
Mushrooms
185
Onions
10.0
20.0
190
Parsnips
230
Peas (Pisum sativum),
dried
1,565
Peas {Pisum sativum),
shelled
440
Cowpeas, dried
Potatoes
*26!6'
40.0
20.0
1,505
295
Rhubarb
Sweet potatoes
60
440
Spinach
95
Squash
50.0
100
Tomatoes
100
Turnips
30.0
120
Vegetables, canned:
Baked beans
555
Peas (Pisutn sativum),
green
235
Corn, green
430
Succotash
425
95
Fruit, berries, etc., fresh:
Apples
25.0
190
*Plain confectionery not containing nuts, fruit or chocolate.
tSuch vegetables as potatoes, squash, beets, etc., have a certain
amount of inedible material — skin, seeds, etc. The amount varies
with the method of preparing the vegetables, and cannot be accu-
rately estimated. The figures given for refuse of vegetables, fruits,
etc., are assumed to represent approximately the amount of refuse
in these foods as ordinarily prepared.
Olfactory Nerve Influence
51
,LE I-
—Continued
Rcf-
Water
Pro-
Fat
V
O A
Ash
use
tein
6^
Food Materials
(as purchased)
VEGETABLE FOOD — Continued
Fruits, berries, etc., fresh:*
Bananas
Grapes
Lemons
Muskmelons
Oranges
Pears
Persimmons, edible port'n.
Raspberries
Strawberries
Watermelons
Fruits, dried:
Apples
Apricots
Dates
Figs
Raisins
Nuts:
Almonds
Brazil nuts
Butternuts
Chestnuts, fresh
Chestnuts, dried
Cocoanuts
Cocoanut, prepared
Filberts
Hickory nuts
Pecans, polished
Peanuts
Pinon iPinus deulis)
Walnuts, black
Walnuts, English
Miscellaneous:
Chocolate
Cocoa, powdered
Cereal coffee, infusion (i
part boiled in 20 parts
water)t
Per
cent.
35.0
25.0
30.0
50.0
27.0
10.0
5.0
59.4
10.0
10.0
45.0
49.6
86.4
16.0
24.0
t48.8
52.1
62.2
53.2
24.5
40.6
74.1
58.1
Per
cent.
48.9
58.0
62.5
44.8
63.4
76.0
66.1
85.8
85.9
37.5
28.1
29.4
13.8
18.8
13.1
2.7
2.6
.6
3.8
.5
7.2
3.5
1.8
1.4
1.4
6.9
2.0
.6
1.0
5.9
4.6
Per
cent.
.8
1.0
.7
.3
.6
.5
.8
1.0
.9
.2
1.6
4.7
1.9
4.3
2.3
11.5
8.6
3.8
5.2
8.1
2.9
6.3
7.5
5.8
5.2
19.5
8.7
7.2
6.9
12.9
21.6
.2
Per
cent.
.4
1.2
.5
.6
.1
2.2
1.0
2.5
.3
3.0
30.2
33.7
8.3
4.5
5.3
25.9
57.4
31.3
25.5
33.3
29.1
36.8
14.6
26.6
48.7
28.9
Fuel
Value
per
Pound
Per
Per
cent.
cent.
14.3
.6
14.4
.4
5.9
.4
4.9
.3
8.5
.4
12.7
.4
31.5
.9
12 6
.6
7.0
.6
2.7
.1
66.1
2.0
62.5
2.4
70.6
1.2
74.2
2.4
68.5
3.1
9.5
1.1
3.5
2.0
.5
.4
85.4
1.1
56.4
1.7
14.3
.9
31.5
1.3
6.2
1.1
4.3
.8
6.2
.7
18.5
1.5
10.2
1.7
3.0
.5
6.8
.6
30.3
2.2
37.7
7.2
1.4
.2
260
295
125
80
150
230
550
220
150
50
1,185
1,125
1,275
1.280
1,;2G5
1.515
1,485
385
915
1,385
1,295
2,865
1.4.%
1,145
1,465
1,775
1,730
730
1,250
5,625
2,160
30
*Fruits contain a certain proportion of inedible materials, as skin,
seeds, etc., which are properly classed as refuse. In some fruits, as
oranges and prunes, the amount rejected in eating is practically the
same as refuse. In others, as apples and pears, more or less of the
edible material is ordinarily rejected with the skin and seeds and
other inedible portions. The edible material which is thus thrown
away, and should properly be classed with the waste, is here classed
with the refuse. The figures for refuse here given represent, as
nearly as can be ascertained, the quantities ordinarily rejected.
tMilk and shell.
JThe average of five analyses of cereal coflFee grain is: Water, 6.2;
protein, 13.3; fat, 3.4; carbohydrates, 72.6; and ash, 4.5 per cent.
Only a portion of the nutrients, however, enter into the infusion.
The average in the table represents the available nutrients in the
beverage. Infusions of genuine coffee and tea like the above contain
practically no nutrients,
LESSON 7
OBESITY— CAUSE AND
PREVENTION
"Fat paunches have lean pates — and dainty bits make rich
the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits." — Shakespeare.
Superfluous adipose (how much better
that sounds when applied to ourselves than
obesity or corpulence) is really an abnormal
development of fatty deposits in cellular tis-
sue, which is constantly accumulating by
reason of excessive nutrition. All stimu-
lants and rich foods force the process of
assimilation into abnormal action, which re-
sults in inactivity of the portal system.
Constipation is another fertile cause of
corpulence. And poisons which accumulate
in the system from this cause alone interfere
seriously with the functions of the heart,
liver, kidneys and circulation.
Hippocrates taught that all fatty deposits
decrease the size of arteries and veins, thus
causing general and persistent disturbances
to health. Very few people realize the danger
to life itself that lurks in "obscured" physi-
cal outlines. In the interior of the body,
Olfactory Nerve Influence 53
also, the organic functions are all impaired
or seriously hindered by pressure and weight
of fatty deposits, thus causing a disturbance
in vital economy by an over-balance of heat in
the form of carbon which has accumulated
in the system instead of uniting with inspired
oxygen and being exhaled from the lungs.
In treating for superfluous flesh, age, sex,
past and present conditions should be taken
into consideration. A knowledge of temper-
ament is also of vital importance. It is not
generally understood in the Occident that
certain dieting and drugging have a directly
opposite effect on persons of opposite tem-
peraments. A lymphatic temperament can
stand fasting well, where, on the same
regime, a sanguine-bilious temperament
would probably develop serious congestive
conditions.
Corpulence is rare among those who
breathe deeply, and almost unknown among
those who live in high altitudes.
All stout people should avoid soups and
liquids at meals, though plenty of pure
water, or with a dash of unsweetened lemon
or any fruit juice, should be used freely be-
tween meals. Nitrogenous foods, which
54 Rhythmic Breathing plus
form the basis of tissue building, should be
restricted to one-fifth of the food eaten. All
sweets and sugar foods are also fattening.
Stout people should eat not more than twice
a day. Hunger is a habit, often more sen-
sational than real. After the first few days
of deprivation the sense of "all-goneness"
so often complained of by those who try to
skip a meal is replaced by a sense of bouyancy
and endurance.
Gluten bread is excellent in a reducing
dietary. So also is hot water early in the
morning and at bedtime. All salads and
green vegetables and sub-acid fruits may be
eaten freely.
By introducing as little carbon as possible
into the system in the form of food the body
is compelled to use up carbon already stored
up in fatty tissues, and so by a natural ab-
sorption and suitable dieting there is soon a
rapid reduction in size and weight.
The writer strongly advises a mixed diet.
The greatest danger to health lies in over-
eating and in eating too often. The writer
also strongly deprecates violent exercise for
stout people. Quiet, persistent, rhythmic,
physical efforts in energizing not only de-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 55
velop natural lung power and a fine contour,
but make a radical change in the health of
those predisposed to corpulence.
Fat is about 79 per cent, carbon, and
chemistry has long ago taught that oxygen
has a special affinity for carbon.
In following any suggestions made in this
lesson, readers must study themselves, hav-
ing regard to the individual rather than
common needs.
To the lack of oxygen in the human sys-
tem can be traced all the minor ills that
flesh is heir to. Without its cleansing, vital,
energizing qualities life is only half lived.
We dread sickness and death. Fear of
those conditions seems to have been firmly
implanted in the human mind to inspire more
care of "the house we live in.'' Growing old
as the years flit by is a process that science
has not yet been able to arrest, but we may
all grow old healthfully and gracefully. It
rests with ourselves if the depressions and
diseases of the physical forces become dom-
inant. It is wiser to recognize them and
work for their alleviation rather than to
deny their existence.
Physically, circumstances control our en-
56 Rhythmic Breathing plus
vironment to some extent, but mentally, we
can all choose our dwelling place.
For the self-reliant, the brave, the true,
the hopeful, universal energy is equal to
every demand that can be made upon it. Old
time is ever flying, and it is best to gather all
the sweetness we can by the wayside. To
get the best we can out of the present is the
best preparation for the future.
In health or disease every one should study
food in its relation to health and their own
powers of digestion. Wait always for a
natural inclination for heavy food. Di-
gestion and assimilation have to follow the
act of swallowing. We should control our
appetites and only swallow what we know
we can digest in comfort, assimilate and turn
into good blood. In this way the nutrition of
the cellular construction of the body is gov-
erned with the least resistance.
The nutrition of every part of the body is
under direct control of the nerve centers.
Certain functions of the nervous system reg-
ulate the respiration and circulation, also
secretion and excretion, and others act as
electrical currents to convey vital force or
nervous energy to every fiber of the body.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 57
Every effort, either mental or physical, in-
volves the expenditure of a certain amount of
nervous energy, which in normal health can
readily be restored from day to day by proper
attention to air, food, hygiene and sleep.
It is due to ourselves to keep the heart
youthful in its emotions and to aid it physi-
cally in its marvelous activity of controlling
the blood stream, which is constantly pass-
ing through its valves at about the rate of
seven miles an hour.
We can readily lessen the strain on the
heart by keeping the river of life properly
supplied with life principles and to see to
it daily that its mysterious channels and by-
ways are kept free from accumulating
debris. In ''the house we live in" can be
found a more marvelously perfect system of
irrigation, drainage and sewerage than mor-
tal mind has ever dreamed of. In the ex-
halation of the breath about 30 per cent,
waste product is thrown off in the form of
poisonous vapor, only about 6 per cent, by
the alimentary tract and the balance should
be excreted by the skin and kidneys.
We control the creative or destructive
qualities of our physical forces by our choice
58 Rhythmic Breathing plus
of thought. No mind is large enough to
hold more than one thought at a time. It
is now an established fact that thoughts and
emotions create chemical disturbances in the
human system that can refresh or poison the
blood. We govern these processes by our
mental attitudes.
An acorn has within its little shell a germ
of life that if given suitable soil and environ-
ment would make it a monarch of the forest.
Every human being has a higher con-
sciousness, to which there are no limitations,
but which can be dwarfed in its growth if
we submit unnecessarily to the "ills that
flesh is heir to.''
Men who retire from active business at
middle age and indulge too freely in the
pleasures of the table always put on super-
fluous flesh.
An obtrusive abdomen in men is invariably
caused by over-activity of the assimilative
process, often created by powerful excitants
of the digestive organs, such as stimulating
drinks and highly seasoned food.
Fat people become indolent and slow of
thought and action. The Greeks and Romans
always punished soldiers who became too
Olfactory Nerve Influence 59
fat, and by frugal diet, vigorous exercise,
and controlled breathing, prevented the ac-
cumulation of superfluous flesh in themselves
and children.
A Greek historian left on record that the
great Dionysius became so dull and idle
through corpulency that it sometimes became
necessary to prick his skin with needles or
cover him with hungry leeches to wake him
from his lethargy.
There have always been people who, like
Shakespeare's Falstaff, have been "fat and
scant o' breath," and in medical history as
far back as the days of Hippocrates and
Galen one learns that much attention was
paid to the cause and cure of corpulence.
We read of Hippocrates advising cold
baths (and condemning hot ones), fasting,
exercise and unlimited fresh air. (Fresh
air means plenty of oxygen, which is neces-
sary to burn up the carbon stored away in
the tissues of stout people in the form of
superfluous fat.)
Galen advised much friction and manipu-
lation of the body and a frequent sponging
with vegetable acids.
Physicians of later date suggested breath-
60 Rhythmic Breathing plus
ing gymnastics and great attention to diet,
forbidding all farinaceous food. Later still
the Banting cure attracted much interest,
but that is a system that compels such a
radical change of diet and habits that not
every one can stand it safely.
During the period of dieting enough food
should be eaten to keep up the normal strength.
An occasional Turkish bath is helpful to
eliminate the waste products, to be followed
with vigorous massage, especially of the ab-
domen. Many excellent exercises for re-
ducing the size of the abdomen will be found
at the end of this book.
All systems of dieting, fasting, bathing,
breathing and medicating should be adapted
to the patient's temperament, of which too
little study is made in the West.
Very hot or very cold baths invigorate
some people and kill others.
In dieting for obesity one should avoid
fats and carbohydrates. Those who wish to
put on flesh should increase the fats and
carbohydrates. All starchy foods, all sweets
and sugar increase the tendency to fat. Milk
is very fattening and should be avoided in
the dietary of stout persons.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 61
Water is the best beverage, but for those
who must have it, a moderate use of tea, cof-
fee and Hght wines is permitted, though not
advised. ( Do not give up any habit abruptly. )
Gluten bread is excellent in a reducing
dietary, so also is hot water. Ordinary bread
should be baked twice or toasted dry, and
moderation in the use of meat be strictly
observed. Pastry and puddings must be
avoided altogether. All acids and sub-acid
fruits, raw or cooked without sugar, may be
eaten freely, and all vegetables excepting
those that contain sugar and starch. By in-
troducing as little carbon as possible in the
form of food the body is reduced to living
upon accumulations of carbon already in the
system stored up in the tissues in the form
of fat. This, by natural absorption, aids in
the rapid reduction of size and weight.
White foods are best suited to persons of
a sanguineous or bilious temperament, such
as veal, white fish, chicken and most of the
watery, gelatinous and albuminous sub-
stances, while those of a lymphatic tempera-
ment may eat all solid animal foods, which
for distinction we may class as red foods,
such as beef, mutton and game.
LESSON 8
SIMPLIFIED VOICE BUILDING (OF
VALUE TO PUBLIC SPEAKERS,
TEACHERS AND CHILDREN).
VOICE PICTURES
SIMPLIFIED VOICE BUILDING
The marvelous power provided by Nature
for the production of a rightly placed voice
(either for speaking or singing) may readily
increase vitality for the whole system, or a
wrong method of voice cultivation may cause
serious disturbance of the nervous system,
apart from actual injury to throat and vocal
chords.
Absolute control of the breathing muscles
is the basis of perfect articulation for speech
or song.
The lungs and respiration muscles control
tone. Tone placing is a matter of study and
cultivation, which, however, can be simpli-
fied to meet a common need.
All tones for speech or vocalization should
be brought as far forward in the mouth as
possible. The average child has a shrill,
Olfactory Nerve Influence 63
high, nasal voice or a throaty tone, caused
by placing the voice too far back in the
mouth — about where the sound ah comes in
voices that have not been cultivated. This
defect can at once be overcome if they are
taught to zvhisper properly with the lips.
Let the reader zvhisper a sentence or verse
of a song. Note where the formation of the
words arrange themselves, and then in low
tones say the words, keeping the formation
of the words in the same place as when
whispering. Example: Sing the broad
ah-a-a. With the average child the sound
will be wholly in the throat. Let them in the
same tone and breath turn the broad ah into
the sound oo, or who, and at once the tone
will be outside the lips without conscious
effort. Then, while still sounding oo, turn
it into ah and the ah also will be found to be,
zmthotit effort, well in front of the mouth.
Sounds are produced by the vibration of
the vocal chords, which respond to our will,
when we wish to emit a sound on a breath,
but which allow a constant quiet current of
air to and from the lungs without causing
sufficient vibration to make sound, unless we
control the breath.
64 Rhythmic Breathing plus
Motive power for sound is of course sup-
plied by the lungs, the organs of respiration,
which fill the chest cavity. Air reaches the
lungs by way of the larynx and trachea, or
wind-pipe, which divides into the right and
left bronchus. Each bronchus divides into
many smaller bronchi, the smallest of them
ending in the air cells of the lungs. On the
walls of the air cells can be found a marvel-
ous network of capillaries, and in the act of
respiration an exchange is set up at this
juncture between the blood and the air, the
blood throwing off waste matter in the form
of carbonic acid gas and renewing its supply
of oxygen. This process of exchange is con-
trolled by breathing. In inhalation, the air
cells are expanded, and this expansion should
affect the chest cavity in all its diameters,
lateral, antero-posterior and vertical.
When one remembers that the chest is con-
ical in shape, with its upper end much nar-
rower than its base, it is easy to realize the
chest was not designed by Nature for high
chest expansion only.
Not only is the clavicular, or upper chest,
expansion contrary to natural laws, but
Nature's own design of breathing is re-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 65
versed. In taking the high chest breath the
shoulders and collar bones are raised, the
abdominal muscles are drawn in, the dia-
phragm is drawn upward, thus crowding the
heart and the lower edges of the lungs. This
is the most unnatural method of expanding
the chest, though even in this advanced era
it is being taught. High chest breathing that
involves muscular effort is contrary to the
natural law of expansion and contraction.
Costal breathing is almost as detrimental,
both to the voice and general health.
In normal breathing, as Nature designed
and finished her handiwork, the chest is in-
creased in all its diameters (vertical, lateral
and antero-posterior). This can only be
brought about by the proper use of the dia-
phragm, a dome-shaped muscle that serves as
a boundary and divides the chest from the ab-
dominal cavity. In normal breathing the dia-
phragm takes a rhythmic dip downward with
every inspiration. This flattens its arch and
largely increases the size of the chest cavity,
a wise provision of Nature, giving the lungs
room for rhythmic expansion with every in-
halation, and by the same movement the
downward pressure of the diaphragm gives
66 Rhythmic Breathing plus
continuous involuntary vibration to the stom-
ach, Hver, spleen, etc.
In inspiration the lungs fill by inflation
as much of the chest cavity as the respiratory
muscles will permit. In exhalation the move-
ment of both chest and lungs seem to be
automatic and free from muscular effort,
unless expired forcibly. Those who wish per-
fect control of respiratory muscles for health
or voice should often practice inspiring very
slowly with as little muscular effort as would
be used in inhaling the perfume of a favorite
flower. In exhaling, puff the cheeks and blow
out a tiny stream, controlling it at intervals
by holding the breath. Children should be
encouraged to whistle and blow bubbles.
In taking breath there should be no ap-
parent effort while using the voice, and there
would be no necessary effort if the olfactory
nerves have been trained to take their auto-
matic share in the control of respiration.
Rapid increase in physical strength and
additional measurement of the chest follow
exercises in breathing controlled by olfactory
nerve influence. This method involves the
use of the costal muscles (superior and in-
ferior) as well as the diaphragm. The ab-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 67
dominal walls should remain passive in
speaking or singing excepting for the slight
rhythm caused by the vibration of the dia-
phragm. The experience of the author, cov-
ering a period of many years' observation
and practical work, indicate that in defective
breathing children, after about two weeks'
drill in the proper use of the diaphragm, the
breathing becomes natural and the chest ex-
pansion remains permanent zvithout con-
scions muscular control. This enables the
lungs to remain fully inflated, merely chang-
ing their residual air automatically instead
of forcibly. Students must add to this high
chest position the art of throwing weight of
body on halls of feet instead of heels in stand-
ing and zvalking, zvhen at once, without con-
scious effort, the abdomen is flattened, the
spinal column straightened and chest remains
high, zvithout conscious muscular control.
For the majority of people in the Western
Hemisphere normal breathing has become a
lost art, but all healthy normal children are
born breathing with full lung inflation, and
not until they have had a series of colds and
nasal trouble do they become defective
breathers.
68 Rhythmic Breathing plus
Breathing muscles rest automatically in
correct use of the diaphragm, because with
every inspiration resistance is followed by
relaxation. During the classic ages control
of intervals between inhalation and exhala-
tion was considered of great importance to
health and curative power in disease.
In the Upanishads of ancient India one
reads, ''What is self? It is the understand-
ing of the man between the breaths/^
In Dallas' "Chinesiology," Paris, 1857,
one reads, ''Two thousand years before the
Christian era the Chinese understood the
healing power of breath and used a very com-
plicated method of breathing, while holding
difficult positions of the body, for the treat-
ment of disease."
During the Middle Ages, Galen and other
physicians of that period often prescribed
"Cohibitio Spiritus" (holding of the breath)
for healing of the sick, teaching that such
efforts would improve health, expand chest,
increase growth, etc.
Plato also had much to say about the heal-
ing power of breath.
Control of breath is as necessary in public
speaking as in singing.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 69
In re-establishing rhythmic breathing
(Nature's best gift) we must learn to hasten
slowly. He who only half breathes only half
lives, and has no real control of his nerves or
voice. In public speaking or singing one
should never use the voice on a forced breath.
The throat should be free from tension, the
diaphragm should be automatic in inhalation
and absolutely passive in exhalation. The
method of holding the chest in public speak-
ing or singing is similar, except that in speak-
ing for full, deep and sonorous tones the chest
should be held a little more firmly at the base.
The reader can get the meaning at once by
inhaling a long, gentle breath and whispering
the letter e rather forcibly, but after nostrils
and respiratory muscles have been properly
trained for inhalation the high, firm chest
will remain expanded without effort.
Public speakers, school-teachers and
others who have to use their voices con-
tinuously get hoarseness, clergymen's throat
and often loss of voice, not from over-use of
the vocal chords, but from had management
of the breath, cidtivating the artificial for the
natural.
Throat muscles, like all others, grow fa-
70 Rhythmic Breathing plus
tigued from use, and when overtaxed become
congested and inflamed. This condition is
invariably caused by straining, giving the
tone too much breath. Tones should not be
forced out of the throat. They should float
out of the lips on a controlled breath of air.
This means regulated respiration, improved
physical health and improved general physi-
cal conditions. People who use their voices
much should pay especial attention to the
hygiene of the nasal passages. Catarrhal
troubles are evidence of neglected colds. In
ordinary health, when nostril breathing is
normal, air will be filtered, warmed, moist-
ened and probably sterilized, before it reaches
the bronchi, and the vocal chords will secrete
their own lubricant.
The most important point in the hygiene
of nostrils is the daily habit of increasing
their energy by inspiring on alternate nos-
trils every morning at an open window as a
part of the morning toilet. This at once re-
lieves the lungs of waste matter accumulated
during sleep.
Control of the breath is the first essential
for public speakers. It is also largely instru-
mental in the cure of stammering.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 71
The quality of vocal sounds depends
largely upon the management of the breath.
Tone placing in children means the proper
use of the voice. The vocal chords are two
flexible muscles susceptible of expansion,
contraction and vibration. They are situated
in the larynx (the sound chamber), which in
turn is fitted with a marvelous arrangement
of membranes and muscles, all requisite for
the articulation of the human voice.
Air may pass through the vocal chords
without vibrating them sufficiently to create
sound, which readily proves that will power
and conscious management of the breath are
the cause and effect of tone placing. In
training the child's voice for singing, the
management of the breath in inspiration and
expiration and tone placing is of infinite
value in the early stages, because while many
children can be taught to inspire slowly, very
few have the least idea of controlling the
breath in exhalation, and usually expel the
breath in a full blast. This could be easily
overcome by teaching them to pout the lips
and puff the cheeks while they blow and con-
trol an even, tiny stream of air. This helps
to keep the chest high, the shoulders down,
72 Rhythmic Breathing plus
and soon fills out the hollows at the base of
the throat caused by shallow breathing.
To improve the speaking voice children
should practice zvhispering frequently, and
gently sounding labials, h, p, m, and so on.
The vowels are all formed in the throat, and
when using them for exercises in the child
or the adult it is best to prefix the vowels
with a labial, such as mouth, me, ma, beau,
ba, be, bi, boo, etc.
Gently hum labial sounds on all tones of
the compass. The wrong tone placing of
vowels are responsible for impaired vocal
chords, strained throat muscles, etc. This is
not a singing lesson, but it means very much
if every one who has charge of children will
do even a little for the children's voices. At
their different recitations let them cultivate
the ear by listening to and feeling for the
sounds that can be created in the resonance
chambers of their own heads and faces. En-
courage them to play at tone placing. Let
them sound the broad ah. Let them feel with
their fingers the sound vibrated at the base
of the throat. Then let them turn the same
sound on the same tone into oo or zvho, and
they will find the tone outside the lips. Let
Olfactory Nerve Influence 7Z
them practice a — oo until all itself can be
formed on the lips instead of in the throat.
Let them place, without sounding, such
words as please, plozv, and so on.
In the song primer by Alys E. Bentley
(A. S. Barnes & Co., New York City) will
be found some splendid hints for developing
tones in apparently "tone deaf children.
Miss Bentley writes :
"The whole question of breathing and
phrasing will be generally understood when
we train our children to become sensitive to
movement in songs as we train them to be-
come sensitive to movement in reading. . . .
Do not be thrown off by the technical terms
and expressions used by people who do not
know just what they are talking about. Trust
your own good common sense and feeling for
movement. Expression in song is not a
strange and unknown thing, but a very
simple and direct known thing. Rhythm is
not something outside of us that we can only
get by watching a wooden stick in the hand
of a wooden man. No, it is a real, beating,
throbbing thing within the soul and heart of
every boy and girl in your school." . . .
"No one object of human pursuit demands
74 Rhythmic Breathing phis
so complete an organic training as music, and
were it pursued as a human end, for its effect
upon the human person, it could be made a
tremendous contribution to organic culture.
With this change of motive there would, as
in the art world, be a distinct change of
method. . . . When vocal music is taught as
a human art and not as a contribution to
human perfection and not as an end in itself,
it will carry on its work along the lines of
cause and effect. That is to say, through the
interest and spontaneity and affection of the
learner. It will be given as an agent to
culture to increase the health and poise and
sight and hearing and voice and touch. The
organic human power of those whose high
privilege it is to learn music and to offer
them a superb medium for the expression of
the profound aspirations of the spirit." —
C. Hanford Henderson, w ''Education and
the Larger Life/'
While modern writers talk about ''over-
tones" and "color scales'' etc., a perusal of
ancient literature would indicate that history
is merely repeating itself, and that King Sol-
omon knew whereof he spoke when he said,
*There is nothing new under the sun." A
Olfactory Nerve Influence 75
geometric scale on next page of voice or
sound pictures, will demonstrate what mod-
ern discovery is doing with sound. Hindu
literature of very ancient date gives us a
musical octave of twenty-two intervals, on
a basis of seven fundamental tones and an
interesting comparative table of vibrations
in the musical color scale.
See chapter on Origin of Music.
The highest authorities (Hemholtz and
Tyndall) admit that a sound composed of
air-waves from the voice will not stir a dia-
phragm unless in unison with its vibrational
number. Here are the words of Hemholtz,
which will forever settle this matter:
"The intensity of sympathetic vibration
with a semitone difference of pitch is only
one-tenth of what it is for a complete uni-
son. . . . Hence, when we hereafter speak
of individual parts of the ear vibrating sym-
pathetically with a determinate tone, we
mean that they are set into strongest motion
by that tone (unison), but so air also set into
vibration less strongly by tones of nearly the
same pitch, and that this sympathetic vibra-
tion is still sensible for the interval of a
semitone."
76 Rhythmic Breathing plus
Galileo seems to have been the first to
notice the points of rest and motion in the
sounding-board of a musical instrument ; but
to Chladni is due the whole discovery of the
symmetrical forms of the nodal lines in
vibrating plates. Certain electrical experi-
ments of Lichtenberg suggested to Chladni
the idea of scattering fine sand over the plate
or disc, whose motions he wished to examine.
If a horizontal plate covered with fine sand
is set in vibration, those parts which move
upwards and downwards scatter the sand
from their neighborhood, while on those
parts which undergo no change of position
sand will remain. Such points are called
nodes; and rows of such points are called
nodal lines, which may be either straight or
curved, according to circumstances.
If a square piece of glass is held by a suit-
able clamp at its center, and the middle point
of a side is touched, while a bow is drawn
across the edge near a corner, the sand is
seen to gather together in the form of a
cross, dividing the square into four equal
squares, like a cross of St. George.
When we take a circular plate of glass,
clamped at the middle, and touching one part
Metric table dividing the base of a square in geometric harmony
by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
This table numbers the harmonic nodes of a musical string and
measures the relative distance between them.
Number and node are identical. The geometric or visible har-
mony, and the audible harmony existing by the same law.
To illustrate the nodal system, or number in the harmonic scale,
I have selected the lower line of the bass cleff to represent the
cello G string and give the tone its proper location.
The string, by single vibrations, produces a monotone or musical
unit; which is not a harmonic but a pedal tonic.
Next the string is divided into two equal parts by the middle
node, giving a unison of two tones from the middle to each end,
which is the double tonic, vibrating twice while the pedal tonic
vibrates once.
The next number divides the line or string by three, and in a
unison of three tones we get the dominant, which vibrates a third
more than the double tonic in the same tempo.
Next comes the harmonic fourth, by the string vibrating in four
sections, and the vibrations count a fourth more than the dominant
in the same tempo. All the following harmonics are subject to the
same rule in the numbers that follow each other.
Now this illustration holds good in one unison vibrating once
more in time than one unison of the next number below. But when
we demonstrate the ultimate relation of number in the open string
and the first harmonic, it is one to four; for while the open string
vibrates once, the first harmonic vibrates twice in two sections, so
the number of vibrations in each section are multiplied by two, and
by this rule the actual mathematical relation of the tenth harmonic
to the open string, by counting all the vibrations, is one hundred
to one.
Next we will take the relation of numbers in Geometric Harmony,
which is identical with harmonic nodes. For example:
Draw a straight line.
Now give number i to each end of it; then divide it by 2, then
by 3, then by 4, then by 5, and put down these numbers where the
measurements occur.
You will find the distance between 5 and 4 to be just one-fifth
the distance between i and 4, or by adding i and 4 you get 5, and
5 indicates the ratio of i to 4 in the measurements between these
numbers.
Each end of the middle fifth lies between 2 and 3, and marks the
distance between, in the ratio of 2 to 3.
You also find a tenth of the whole line between 5 and 2, which is
their multiple, and between 5 and 3 you find a fifteenth of the whole
line, which is one part of their multiple. So much for number five in
a musical string, or a straight line. All following numbers are sub-
ject to the same rules.
All regular forms and irregular deviations in the above chart show
a center of their area, and all the intersections bear a mathematical
relation to each other throughout.
Geometric harmony is produced by the kindred values of number
in form. It reveals properties in the circle, plane line, triangle and
square, that cannot be obtained by mathematics alone.
It measures the base of a square by its hypothenuse or diameter.
It measures the radiant chord of a circle by its diameter, and gives
you a perfect musical scale in harmonic ratios.
Music is a scientific fact and without the requisite form is just
as injurious to the musical ear as deformity is to the artistic eye.
NOTATION OF HARMONIC SCALE TO NO. 8, 'CELLO G.
U-U.
DR. J. MOUNT BLEYER S AND MELVILLE M. WILSON S SCALE
■^^ 1!
Sc^rtinc Q ! 1.0W Q I I>\tdiile A.
^^4JkD i >^A^ E lAi^iAkF
IX J M
\ I
H I i '/
DR. BLEYER S VOICE FIGURES OF VARIOUS
PITCH
MRS. HUGHES DIATONIC SCALE
(by permission), from Voice Pictures.
_5>
^V"
^^
/^
/^.
m
^
CHALDI-S FIGURES
Showing the vibrating surface when
sand divides it into squares. The figures
marked A, A, are in different stages of
vibration from those marked B, B.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 77
of its edge with the finger, draw the bow
across a point of the edge half a quadrant
from the finger, we see the sand arrange
itself along two diameters intersecting at
right angles. If the bow is drawn at a point
one-third of a quadrant from the finger-
clamped point, we get a six-pointed star. If
the bow is drawn at a fourth of a quadrant
from the finger-clamped point, we get an
eight-pointed star. And so we can get the
sand to arrange itself into a star of any even
number of points ; that is, we can get a star
of four, six, eight, ten, twelve, etc., points,
but not of three, five, seven, etc.
A curious effect is produced if very fine
powder be strewn along with the sand over
the plate, for it is found that the dust gathers,
not where the nodes or places of no vibration
lie, but where the motion is greatest. Fara-
day assigns as the cause of this peculiarity
the circumstance that "the light powder is
entangled by the little whirlwinds of air pro-
duced by the vibrations of the plate ; it cannot
escape from the little cyclones, though the
heavier sand particles are readily driven
through them; when, therefore, the motion
ceases, the light powder settles down in heaps
78 Rhythmic Breathing phis
at the places where the vibration was a max-
imum." In proof of this theory we have the
fact that "in vacua no such effects are pro-
duced; all powders, light or heavy, move to
the nodal lines." — Tyndall on Sound.
Professor Wheatstone has shown, in a
paper read before the Royal Society in 1883,
that all Chladni's figures, and, indeed, all the
nodal figures of vibrating surfaces, result
from very simple nodis of vibration, oscil-
lating isochronously, and superposed upon
each other, the resulting figures varying with
the component nodes of vibration, the num-
ber of the superposition and the angles at
which they are superposed. For example, if
a square plate be vibrating so as to make the
sand arrange itself in straight lines parallel
to one side of the plate, and if, in addition
to this, such vibration be excited as would
have caused the sand to form in lines per-
pendicular to the first had the plate been at
rest, the combined vibrations will make the
sand form in hills from corner to corner.
The varieties of vibratory motion to which
the diaphragm of the telephone has been ^
made to respond have been multitudinous.
Not only have all orders of sound, singly and
Olfactory Nerve Influence 79
together, been responded to, but vocal sounds
which in many respects differ widely from
ordinary tones are repeated, and the pecul-
iarities of intonation which distinguish one
voice from another have been faithfully re-
produced.
We now know that the speaking diaphragm
in the telephone, as in the phonograph, must
reproduce not only all the varieties of sound-
pulses corresponding to vowel sounds, with
their intermixtures of the fundamental tone
and its over-tones and their inflexions or
sliding changes of pitch, but also all the
efifects produced on the receiving diaphragm
by those interruptions, complete or partial,
of aerial emission which correspond to the
pronunciation of the various consonant
sounds. It might certainly have seemed
hopeless, from all that had been known or
surmised respecting the effects of aerial
vibrations on flexible diaphragms, to attempt
to make a diaphragm speak artificially — in
other words, to make the movements of all
parts of it correspond with those of a dia-
phragm set in vibration by spoken words, etc.
— by movements affecting only its central
part. It is in the recognition of the possi-
80 Rhythmic Breathing plus
bility of this, or rather in the discovery of
the fact that the movements of a minute por-
tion of the middle of a diaphragm regulate
the vibratory and other movements of the
entire diaphragm, that the great scientific
interest of Professor Graham Bell's re-
searches appear to reside.
It was reserved, however, to Thomas A.
Edison to show how advantage might be
taken of this discovery to make a diaphragm
speak, not directly through the action of the
movements of a diaphragm affected by
spoken words or other sounds, and therefore
either simultaneously with these or in such
quick succession after them as corresponds
with the transmission of their effect along
some line of electrical or other communica-
tion, but by the mechanical reproduction of
similar movements at any subsequent time
(within certain limits at present, but prob-
ably hereafter with practically unlimited ex-
tension as to time).
For voice pictures, geometric scale and
data we are indebted to Dr. Bleyer and other
distinguished scientific investigators.
THE VINA OF INDIA
(Earliest known stringed instrument)
LESSON 9
THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC— EAST
INDIAN TRADITION
Traditions of the music of India have
many interesting mythological associations.
Many of the Hindu gods and goddesses of
mythology are represented not only as
patrons of art, but as inventors of musical
instruments and composers of music and
poetry.
Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of Music
and Speech, is said to have been the first to
arrange a system of sounds into a musical
scale. She is always pictured as seated on
a peacock, holding the Vina, the earliest
known stringed instrument (a picture of a
V^ina of very early date illustrates this
chapter).
The consort of Saraswati is depicted in
the same scene as a vigorous man keeping
time by beating a drum, Vishnu, in his Re-
incarnation of Krishna, is depicted in the
same scene as a beautiful youth playing on a
lute, and Ganesha (symbol of wisdom).
^2 Rhythmic Breathing plus
always represented in the guise of an ele-
phant, is in the same group.
Even at this late date all musical cere-
monies in India are commenced by playing
an ode of praise to the Goddess of Music.
The Rig Veda, the oldest tradition pre-
served in literary form, contains songs and
hymns of praise. The early poets of India
were called Rishas, and were held in great
esteem and veneration. They sang and re-
cited their own compositions and accom-
panied them on the Vina.
The musical octave of Indian music is
idealized in the form of exquisite nymphs.
It is divided into seven parts — division, tone,
melody, time, rhythm, harmony and poetry.
The musical scale of India has twenty-two
intervals to an octave, always keeping on a
basis of seven fundamental tones, and music
is written in that country in thirty-six differ-
ent keys, an interesting reason for which
can be found in Hindu mythology. Some
of their music is only used at the different
seasons of the year, and many songs are
arranged to symbolize the moods of the dif-
ferent seasons.
The Hindus call the human voice a gift
Olfactory Nerve Influence ^Z
from the gods, and claim that one who has
full knowledge of the power of the human
voice can cultivate more than mortal charm.
They say, too, that a repetition of certain
tones of the musical scale can stimulate the
mind, awaken the soul and arouse the inborn
divinity of man. Also, that musical sounds
properly understood would obliterate evil
tendencies in the criminal and cure disease
and insanity. They know that the highest
vibration of sound is color. The writer has
seen them prove that much.
One of their traditions recites that a timely
use of the rain Raga sung by a woman once
saved Bengal from drought, and that as far
as the vibration of her voice reached rain
fell. That story is still told with the utmost
gravity, and millions of Hindus believe it.
All the Ragas are short, but varied by
repetition and change of time. Many of
their songs are in the minor, and sound like
a wailing lamentation. Others are sugges-
tive of Rondos, Fugues and Nocturnes.
The music of the northern provinces
differs somewhat from that of the south.
The northern music is more martial, and
they have much of folk-lore in their poetry.
84 Rhythmic Breathing plus
In the south the music is still closely associ-
ated with religion.
The Marga Sangita is the highest order
of Indian music, being of (supposedly)
sacred origin, and as such is everywhere re-
ceived with homage and veneration.
The Hindus teach that music evolved
from nada, meaning sound, and that nada,
or sound, had its origin in akasa, an ethereal
vibration which pervades the whole universe,
symbolizing the higher or spiritual side of
nature. They speak of musical voices as
waves of color, and teach that music is a
vibratory language of the universe, the
mirror of melodies, the sea of emotions, etc.
They have an interesting comparative table
of vibrations in the musical color scale, and
teach that a proper use of meter in poetry
and rhythm in music not only enchants the
hearing, but should appeal to the judgment
and emotions.
Much of the history of India, musical and
otherwise, has been taught and handed down
from one generation to another in the two
monumental Vedic poems called *'The Ma-
habharatta" and ''The Ramayana.''
The drama of India is of very ancient
Olfactory Nerve Influence 85
date. Long before Europe had evolved any
dramatic literature, that of India had passed
its zenith.
In the Indian temples girls are still trained
in rhythmic movements and gestures of ex-
pression, said to be in vibration with the
planetary music of the spheres. These girls
take part in the temple services, and earn
money for the temples in entertainments for
the rich, posturing as Nautch girls, etc.
In the museums and temples one finds an
infinite variety of stringed instruments. The
lower castes content and amuse themselves
with trumpets, drums, horns, conch shells,
tamboras, fiddles with two strings, and other
stringed instruments made by stretching
strings over dried gourds or cocoanut shells.
The shofar has always been known in
India.
To Beethoven, the tone master of the mod-
ern world, the music of the Orient was full
of beautiful symbolism and rarest inspira-
tion. Upon his writing table it is said he
kept a framed inscription from the Egyptian
Temple of Sais, which read : "I am that was,
that is, that will be. No mortal has lifted my
veil/' Wagner also is said to have made a
86 Rhythmic Breathing plus
close study of Oriental and Grecian music.
There is much of the mythological in his
best compositions.
Every Hindu woman is fond of quoting
from the Mahabharatta that exquisite history
of the conjugal devotion of the chaste heroine
Sita, whose love for her husband induced
her to follow him into the forests and
jungles, to which he was banished for an
exile of fourteen years.
The story of her pleading to be permitted
to follow him is sublime in its wifely de-
votion and self-sacrifice. ^
Sanscrit poetry is so full of dignity and
subtle meanings that any English translation
robs it of much of its charm. Sita said in
part:
A wife must share her husband's fate;
My duty is to follow thee
Wheresoe'er thou goest.
Apart from thee I should not wish to dwell
in heaven itself.
Thou art my king, my guide, my only refuge,
my divinity;
It is my fixed resolve to follow thee
If thou must wander forth through thorny,
trackless forests.
I will go before thee, treading down
Olfactory Nerve Influence 87
The prickly brambles to make smooth thy
path ;
Walking before thee I shall feel no weariness.
The forest thorn will seem like silken robe,
Roaming with thee in desert wastes.
A thousand years will be a day
Dwelling with thee; e'en hell itself
Would be a realm of bliss.
LESSON 10
RHYTHM AND CONTROLLED
BREATH THE BASIC PRIN-
CIPLE OF MUSCULAR
EXERCISE
No physical culture exercise that has been,
or ever will be invented, can be a substitute
for controlled breathing. There can be no
lasting benefit from muscular exercise un-
less combined with a knowledge of rhythmic
breath, energizing and relaxing. Exercise
should be daily, hut brief. Then, because of
brevity, there will at all times be left to the
student a sense of exhilaration and renewed
energy instead of fatigue. Breath is the
basic principle of all physical energy, and the
only exercise which naturally and subcon-
sciously involves the whole bpdy. Among
the first lessons given to children of the
Orient is that of cultivating the control of
muscular effort by breath. Fortunately for
the rising generation of the United States,
some of the most brilliant writers and teach-
ers of the present day are devoting much
Hold elbow in this position, control breath, and sway
body in all directions, with alternate arms and then both
elbows raised, excellent for graceful contours.
Note the marvelous provision of Nature in the attach-
ment of the ribs to the breast-bone, each with its own httle
strip of cartilage, to admit of expansion when lungs in-
flate. Note also how easily the lower ribs may be perma-
nently injured in the young girl by tight-lacing.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 89
earnest effort to the need of better lung de-
velopment for children, and to this end are
advocating the importance of play in school
hours and games and sports for outdoor
pastimes.
'Tis sad, alas! that thousands of children
in overcrowded cities hardly know the mean-
ing of play, or the sight of green fields, wild
flowers and blue skies.
All children should be taught games that
involve some reaching exercises — to reach
high for an imaginary trifle, first with one
arm, then with the other, then with both. If
this exercise is done on a controlled, gentle
breath (the breath to be controlled rather
than held) it involves far more possibilities
for better lung development than violent
muscular chest expansion. All young chil-
dren and young animals stretch their muscles
as soon as they are awakened from sleep.
This is a good exercise to keep up in adult
life.
Slow movements under high nerve tension
while controlling, not holding, the breath,
with diaphragm not drawn up, but allowed
to take its normal position and dip rhyth-
mically with every breath, will expand with-
90 Rhythmic Breathing plus
out muscular effort all the chest diameters
simultaneously. It is not natural for the
chest walls to flatten or collapse after exhala-
tion. The diaphragm is Natvtre's rheostat.
As designed by Nature, its normal rhythm
covers a double function — that of aiding the
respiratory muscles and at the same time
vibrating the contents of the abdominal
cavity.
The breathing gymnastic exercises some-
times advocated of drawing in and upward
the abdominal walls is reversing Nature's
method and quite injurious if long continued.
All voluntary abdominal muscular move-
ment is contrary to Natvire; short, jerky
movements of any part of the body involve
a useless expenditure of nerve energy. Vio-
lent effort in muscular exercise is no more
necessary in man than it is in the lower
animals, who in their wild state spend a great
deal of their time in stretching and relaxing
their muscles, making only continuous effort
when necessary to hunt food, fight their foes
or escape danger, and yet among wild
animals, physical efficiency is the rule rather
than the exception. Every one should culti-
vate the art, of avoiding friction by moving
Olfactory Nerve Influence 91
along the lines of least resistance. Take
time to stretch the arms and limbs. Stretch
on a full breath. Then gently change on a
controlled breath the residual air of the
lungs. Stand by the open window for this,
inhale and exhale a few times slozvly, giving
the nostrils time to zvarm the fresh air on
its way to the lungs. Alternate the nostrils
in the first breathing exercises of the early
morning, not because it is an occult or
''Yogi" method, but because it is the best
way of energizing the nasal chamber, res-
piratory tract, and arousing circulation of
the blood stream. Catarrh and ordinary
colds are almost impossible among those who
take the time and trouble to breathe cor-
rectly and energize the nasal passages daily.
Exercise through rhythmic breath control
has a marvelous effect in the prevention of
disease and its cure; additional oxygen in the
blood increases the metabolism of the cellu-
lar construction of the body, renews the
activities of the process of elimination and
harmonizes the disturbances that nerve
centers always exhibit when breathing is
shallow and the circulation sluggish or im-
paired.
92 Rhythmic Breathing plus
See cut of standing in correct position.
In the physical development of children
correct standing, sitting and walking are im-
portant factors. All mouth breathing chil-
dren stand and walk incorrectly.
In rhythmic breath, when not supplanted
by artificial methods, but allowed to work as
Nature designed it, we have a vital principle
which governs automatically all the activities
of the body. Bulgy biceps and over-
developed chest are often acquired at the ex-
pense of permanent health. Many athletes
die young.
Rhythm is a natural law. *
It is the law of expansion and contraction,
which controls the universe and all that
therein is.
Laboring men who swing heavy imple-
ments and sailors who pull together on heavy
ropes fall naturally into rhythm, using the
full breath for the moment of supreme effort,
then relaxing for the next full breath.
The Japanese understand the power of the
full breath in their wonderful feats of
wrestling and lifting heavy weights.
The bearers or men who carry human
freight in canvas chairs up the slopes of the
»^^--
1^ »«^'
', ^-JF
^m ' ^iS^^^H
W^ • '^p|: 1;.,
r -^ ^1
■i
^m
*p^^b|
^Itaiii^tak .tail
- ^Vk 'W^^^^^^''
^*
H'
Olfactory Nerve Influence 93
Himalayan Mountains all walk or run in
rhythm, chanting little rhymes as they run,
improvising as they sing them little com-
mentaries on their burdens, often none too
complimentary.
RHYTHM
From the tiniest atom to the greatest,
everything is in a state of rhythm or vibra-
tion. Natural rhythm keeps the molecules
of the body in constant vibration. Rhythm
pervades the universe, the swing of the
planets around the sun, the rise and fall of
the tides. Rhythm is a fundamental prin-
ciple in human life. There is rhythm in the
measured pulsation of the human heart. All
motion is a manifestation of the law of
rhythm. It has been said that the repetition
of a rhythmic note on a violin will start
vibrations that would in time break down a
bridge. It is for this reason that when regi-
ments of soldiers cross bridges the order is
always given to break step, lest the rhythm
of marching may bring about some injury
to the structure.
Rhythm is the fundamental principle of
dancing, although dancing is the most prim-
94 Rhythmic Breathing plus
itive of all the arts. Even the rudest sav-
ages practice it, making it a part of their
religious observances in tribal festivals. The
seasons of the year, the harvests, births,
deaths and marriages, every event of tribal
importance is celebrated by dancing. Re-
cently in one of the Samoan Islands (not yet
civilized) the writer saw a number of women
do a muscle dance while sitting down, the
men of the tribe making music or rhythm by
beating time with their hands.
There are records of dancing two thou-
sand years B. C, and it is commonly sup-
posed that the art originated in ancient
Egypt. In India, posturing and expressive
gesture, which governs all the movements of
the body, is the main feature of the dance of
the Nautch girls.
Dancing should be taught to all children,
especially the poetry of motion and control
of muscles involved in slow posturing. The
stealthy movements of the shadow dance
calls for the most perfect control of the
muscles. It is best to practice in front of a
mirror as an incentive to graceful poise and
perseverance.
A few gymnastic appliances are helpful,
Olfactory Nerve Influence 95
though not necessary, in contour building,
such as a punching bag for outdoor use, a
bar and ropes to skip or pull upon. Games
of fencing, tennis, etc., are excellent for re-
ducing adipose and restoring youthful con-
tours in either sex. After exercises that in-
duce perspiration, a shower bath is of infinite
value. For those who have no shower, a
rubber tube and spray attached to the bath
faucet or even a garden watering pot with
spray will answer just as well, hvit, while the
body is still moist with perspiration it is quite
injurioits to spray with cold water. One
should begin the spray with quite hot water,
gradually cooling until nearly or quite cold.
Rubbing dry with a coarse towel helps to
bring about a splendid reaction.
Children cannot grow up without physical
ailments, and defective contours, unless
taught to carry themselves properly during
the growing period. Parents and teachers
do not realize that good health and a fine
physique is of far more importance than high
markings in school studies. When children
breathe correctly, it will no longer be neces-
sary to constantly remind them to keep the
shoulders back. The muscles of the torso
96 Rhythmic Breathing plus
become so strong through automatic rhythm
of correct breathing that the chest walls take
care of themselves. When the school term
opened in this country for 1908, the number
of defective breathers among children of all
grades was simply appalling.
Children will get a high chest develop-
ment more easily if they are taught to do
blowing exercises while lying flat upon their
backs. This teaches an easy control of
breath. Even an adult who has apparently
finished his growth can add a two- or three-
inch permanent expansion to a flat chest
within three months* time if he will practice
a controlled breath while in the recumbent
position for not more than ten minutes every
day.
Apart from permanent results for chest
expansion, the controlled breath has a won-
derfully revitalizing effect on the system. In
this system of health exercises one must
learn to ''hasten slozvly." To get best results
it is necessary that all movements should be
very slow and on the breath. (Controlling
is not the act of holding the breath.)
While exercising, hold every muscle at its
highest tension. Consciously energizing the
Olfactory Nerve Influence 97
muscles and rousing the circulation will put
more vim and health into persons of seden-
tary occupation than the most vigorous gym-
nastics or horseback exercises. Not every
one owns a horse, or knows how to ride.
Avoid over-fatigue; relax often. Rightly
done through control of breath, relaxation
enables one to unlock all the muscular
tension of the whole system. Over-fatigue
obscures even the most charming person-
ality. To be well fed it is not necessary to
be overfed. Constipation is greatly aided
by hulk in food — "roughage" it has been
called by a great thinker. There is a breath
exercise done in the recumbent position very
like the panting of a dog that is especially
useful in overcoming constipation.
A few simple exercises for strengthening
the muscles of the eyes may not be out of
place here. Eyes have to adapt themselves
to distances, and every time the eye turns
in any direction it is controlled by muscles
that perform all the mechanical part of turn-
ing the eyeball.
To strengthen the muscles of the eye, hold
any small object or a pencil between the
fingers. Extend the arm straight out as far
98 Rhythmic Breathing plus
as possible, keeping the gaze riveted on the
object. Bring the arm in gradually without
removing the sight from the object until
within six inches of the eyes. Repeat several
times. Carry up and down and from side to
side, always keeping the eyes firmly fixed on
the object that is being moved.
Stand or sit with the neck muscles per-
fectly passive, the head in one position;
slowly roll the eyes upward and downward
and sideways without moving the head.
Then keep the eyes on one object and slowly
turn the head from side to side and up and
down. This will be found to strengthen the
eye muscles very materially.
The eyes should always be bathed at bed-
time with warm water, and in wiping them
rub toward the nose. The eyes should not
be used for close work when the body is
fatigued, and when using the eyes in a strong
light the light should come from behind.
For those out of health many resistance
exercises can be accomplished in bed while
controlling breath.
LESSON 11
CONTOUR CULTURE— CONCENTRA-
TION AND RELAXATION
Just as sunlight is inseparable from color,
so is beauty of expression and contour of
form the most subtle manifestation of per-
fect physical and mental equipose.
Many women are imbued with the idea
that deep breathing means a large waist,
sloppy figure, low-heeled shoes and no cor-
sets. We do not advocate low-heeled shoes
for feet that are naturally arched, and we
believe a well-fitting corset to be an improve-
ment rather than a detriment to the form of
a grown woman. In this day and age har-
mony of outlines in both sexes makes for suc-
cess in the business and professional world
and counts for much in all ranks of life.
Just so soon as a woman allows her muscles
to relax and fat to accumulate she is qualify-
ing for the Mother Hubbard style of dress-
ing, of all costumes and of all ages the least
attractive.
Of course, women who wear corsets
K. ■
100 .^hyt^mic Breathing plus
.^"^
sholBd j^e it to themselves to wear only
^os^that fit well and be careful to allow
sulficient room at the belt line for proper
•expansion and balance of the body, but aside
from any support, real or imaginary, the
corset may be, the chest should never be
allowed to flatten or sink downward, as that
position at once crowds every internal organ
out of position and throws the whole body
out of proper contour.
Rhythmic breathing compels the chest to
remain high, and the ribs to remain ex-
panded through the full and automatic infla-
tion of the lungs. A strong muscular devel-
opment of the torso is the first development
of rhythmic breath. The illustration accom-
panying this chapter shows the right and
wrong method of standing and the effect the
downward droop of chest has upon the con-
tour of the body, apart from its interference
with the circulation and the cutting off of its
natural supply of oxygen. Among the les-
sons at the end of this book readers will find
some scientific but simple, practical and non-
fatiguing exercises for reducing the waist
line if it averages too many inches for iype,
age and height.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 101
A thick waist in either sex is invariably
caused by accumulation of adipose in the
form of stored-away carbon, of which fat
is about 75 per cent.
Muscles loaded down with superfluous fat
soon lose their suppleness and graceful con-
tour. Superfluous flesh has been rightly
called ''obscurity," obscuring as it does in the
abnormally stout person all the original out-
lines.
Pressure caused by fatty deposits on capil-
laries, veins and arteries is often the cause
of poor circulation.
Heart disease is frequently merely a symp-
tom expressing the incapacity of the circu-
lation to force its life fluid into veins and
arteries that are reduced in size from ex-
ternal pressure.
Any dress or corset that allows the abdo-
men to press downward and outward in sit-
ting and standing is wrongly made. It pre-
vents the proper rhythm of the diaphragm,
interferes with the digestion and imperils the
health. We would suggest that students re-
duce the waist line (where desirable) by
proper exercises instead of tight lacing. Any
bandage or lacing that tightens the garments
102 Rhythmic Breathing plus
at the pit of the stomach show a lack of com-
mon sense; how few of us stop to realize
that just back of the waist line lies the solar
plexus, the sun center, an important nerve
plexus that is beginning to be recognized as
the abdominal brain, because of its marvel-
ously important function and its relation to
the sympathetic nervous system. A very few
minutes every morning and evening devoted
to rhythmic contour culture would soon
establish the habit that would make for
health and beauty.
Thanks to the microscope, we know accu-
rately now that the whole process of life in
body building is cellular. By intelligent care
of the ''house we live in" we can aid and even
direct and govern the constructive process of
renewing vital energy.
Many of the ailments so common in school
children are due to defective breathing.
Mal-nutrition (where children have
enough of suitable food to eat) is invariably
caused by defective respiration and, alas!
sad but true, in the most magnificently
equipped schools in the world — those of the
United States — there can be found millions
of shallow or defective breathing children
Olfactory Nerve Influence 103
suffering untold misery, many of them from
diseases caused entirely from lack of knowl-
edge on the part of their parents and teachers
of the natural law of breathing with which
Nature endowed every child, whether born
prince or pauper, and which should have been
kept up in nurseries and kindergartens.
Many people fuss and worry about in-
crease of weight, and do little else to prevent
it. One of the best possible exercises for
rapidly reducing an abnormal waist line is
this : Poise lightly on balls of feet, with men-
tal impulse of starting to run or skate, arms
hanging loosely, chest up, chin drawn back.
Then walk lightly about the room, drawing
each knee alternately up to the waist line,
holding it there with clasped hands as long
as one breath can be comfortably sustained
without chest effort. Do this for ten min-
utes while undressed night and morning.
See illustration.
Another equally useful exercise for reduc-
ing waist line: Stand firmly on feet, bend
body from the hips and sway in every direc-
tion without losing balance. See illustration.
According to the perfect figure of woman,
the breadth of measurement of shoulders
104 Rhythmic Breathing plus
and hips should be exactly the same. The
waist ten inches less.
In the Orient every one is taught to be re-
spectful to even the most loathsomely dis-
eased, in recognition of the God-atom in man
— the vital spark — which constitutes human
life. The mystery of life is an all-absorbing
one. Students of this system should watch
the various functions of their own bodies.
Note what happens to the circulation, nerves
and muscles when certain movements are
brought into play. Study temperament, indi-
viduality, and build up to its highest expres-
sion of vital kinship with the universe.
People out of health and those desiring to
conserve their vital energy should retire
early, and leave their beds not later than
seven in the morning. Those who sleep late
in the morning lack nervous energy. Daily
attention to the hygiene of the skin is an ex-
ercise of vital importance. Auto-Massage is
more beneficial than mechanical or that done
by another person. Always massage the skin
of the whole body with cocoa butter or oil be-
fore bathing. This gives nutrition as well
as stimulation to all the nerve terminals,
tissues and blood vessels in and beneath the
Olfactory Nerve Influence 105
skin and keeps alert, the myriad avenues of
intercommunication between the skin and
other functions of the body.
CONCENTRATION AND RELAXATION
In the Orient there is only one meaning for
the term "concentration," which is, that con-
centration becomes realization through rep-
etition.
In India it is still customary for the
Master to impart knowledge to the student
in parables, and to explain the meaning of
concentration the following parable was told
to the author.
"It is common in India when men desire
to join a brotherhood for retreat from the
world and the cultivation of the religious
side of their nature to be accepted on a three
years' probation. Education and caste is of
no importance. If a man has worldly goods
he usually makes a gift to the temple on his
admission to the brotherhood. On this
occasion the man was of the agricultural
class, alone in the world, nothing left of
worldly possessions excepting an old cow,
which he took with him as his gift to the
temple. The day after arrival, his Master
106 Rhythmic Breathing plus
asked him if he knew the meaning of con-
centration. He replied, 1 am illiterate, and
the word has no meaning for me/ Then
said the Master, 'Have you no ideal, no high
attribute, upon which you could concen-
trate?' The man replied, T know so little of
these higher things, but I know a great deal
about my old cow/ Then said the Master,
'How much do you know about your old
cow ?' Said the man, T raised that cow from
a Httle calf. / know all there is to know
about that old cow.' 'Very well,' said the
Master, 'tell me what you know of the cow.'
The man replied, 'The cow has a body, four
legs, four feet, a head and a tail ; it has two
horns, two ears, two eyes, four eyelids, two
nostrils, a mouth, two lips, a tongue and so
many teeth. Its weight is about so much,
and its color is brown with white spots.'
'Well,' said the Master, 'so far, so good, as
regards general appearance. Now for de-
tail. How many lashes upon one eyelid has
the cow?' Ans., 'I don't know.' 'What
is the exact color of its eyes?' Ans., 'I
don't know.' 'How many hairs upon the tip
of one ear?' Reply, 'I don't know.' 'How
many hairs upon the extreme end of its tail ?'
Olfactory Nerve Influence 107
Reply, 1 don't know.' The relative size of
the white and brown spots of its hide T Re-
ply, 1 don't know/ And for every question
that the man could answer there were a hun-
dred that he could not. 'Very well, then,' said
the Master, *you may take your cow as a sub-
ject for concentration,' which the man did.
"For many moons the man kept up,
through concentration, his daily study of the
cow, until one day, when the Master came
to visit his cell, realization had awakened,
and the man knew all about the cow.
" 'Now,' said the Master, 'through repeti-
tion, concentrationhas become realization, and
you may leave your cell.' 'But,' said the man,
'I cannot get out. I have become the cow.' "
This story is not to be understood from a
literal standpoint, but the moral intended to
be conveyed, is, that we chose our own plane
for concentration, and if, through repetition,
we remain on that plane long enough, we
shall come into realization of whatever we
concentrate upon.
Because the man in the story had no
higher ideal than the cow, he remained on
the animal plane. The story also conveys the
lesson that true knowledge is not superficial.
108 Rhythmic Breathing phis
Relaxation, as understood in the Orient,
is a question of controlled breathing. It can
only be done in the recumbent position. This
is so common in the Orient that on long
marches soldiers relax instead of sleep. The
nearest approach to real rest is to lie flat upon
the back, on the floor or other unyielding
surface, and breathe rhythmically (remem-
ber, rhythm is equal motion), the exhalation
must be controlled and be equal in time to
the inhalation. Spread arms and legs to a
comfortable angle, and turn the head to one
side to relieve tension on neck muscles. (The
easy angles of arms and legs take tension
off the bone sockets.) Hold pleasant
thoughts while resting rather than the strain
of counting breaths. On the subject of con-
scious relaxation as a substitute for hypno-
sis, the writer invites correspondence from
physicians, ministers, and others who prac-
tice suggestive therapeutics, and refers them
to a lesson-brochure on the subject called
"Conscious Relaxation an Effectual Substi-
tute for Hypnosis in Psycho-Therapy" —
supplementary to "A Method for the Mil-
lions." (Direct from Publisher, R. B. Noble,
Huntington Chambers, Boston, Mass.)
LESSON 12
FIRST AID TO LONGEVITY
Men and women age fast when they sub-
mit to monotony. At middle age both men
and women should forget their birthdays
and in the joy of wholly living play the great
game of life as if they were winning every
move.
Growing old is symbolic of decay, and its
ugliness is largely induced by auto-sugges-
tion. Among the lower animals it is difficult,
excepting by close observation, to distinguish
the old from the young.
In the marvelous economy of Nature's
great laws the physiological condition of
human life has three important periods. The
youth, or glorious morning of life; the high
noon, or full maturity of life in both sexes ;
and the afternoon, which fades slowly but
surely into eventide.
In the afternoon of life Nature has reached
and passed its climacteric, a period when
some of Nature's most potent forces have
come to a full stop and must submit to a re-
110 Rhythmic Breathing plus
distribution of electro-chemic energy — a
marvelous readjustment of physical condi-
tions in both sexes.
At this period, with proper care of the*
body, it is possible to develop latent qualities
that by recognition and cultivation would
make the afternoon of life one long Indian
summer.
At this important cross-road of life men
and women should make every effort to con-
serve instead of scatter life's energies. In
the afternoon of life it is easy by a close
attention to the laws of health and hygiene
to ripen slowly and not to arrive at the full
realization of latent power and talent until
quite late in life.
Goldsmith's ''History of England" says
Plutarch left on record, that the ancient
Britons only began to grow old when they
had passed the century mark, because of
their strict adherence to the laws of temper-
ance in all things. To-day, in Southern
India, among the high castes (who eat only
twice a day) it is not unusual to find four
or five generations under one roof ! Among
the nations that believe in reincarnation
there is absolutely no fear of death. They
Olfactory Nerve Influence 111
rejoice for those who pass on early, and
often await with pleasant expectancy the
open portal for themselves.
Not so with the (so-called) civilized races,
with whom the very name of death is associ-
ated with dread and fear. Health cannot
long be preserved by the idle, or those of
sedentary habit who live too much within
the four walls of a house or office. Among
the Arabs there is an old saying, ''He who
builds him a house of stone should at the
same time prepare himself a tomb."
At fifty years of age, if self-control has
been established earlier, there will be no
shattered nerves, impaired circulation, sag-
ging muscles and faltering footsteps and
none of the hideous wrinkles caused by pain,
worry and discontent.
We build our own individuality, but when
we permit the little frictions which are in-
separable from human life to worry and
annov us, it throws us off our mental and
physical balance and limits our possibilities
of daily achievement.
It is well to cultivate toleration of other
people's failings. Learn to forget as well
as forgive, and hold on to the life-buoy of
112 Rhythmic Breathing plus
optimism, even though our frail bark
swamps in the turmoil and troubled surf of
unrealized ambitions, and to begin a new
struggle with chance, if necessary, rejoicing
in the fact that many of the greatest men
and women of all ages and nationalities have
made their greatest successes late in life.
• There is no royal road to old age, but
tenacity of life is greatly aided by correct
breathing and strict attention to diet and
hygiene in youth and middle age.
No one can turn back the shadow on the
dial of time, but it is possible to grow old
healthfully and with some semblance of our
original contours.
We select our food, and can control to
some extent the process of body building,
and it rests largely with ourselves whether
we permit our joints to become deformed
by the accumulation of uric acid deposits
and our muscular outlines to become ob-
scured by superfluous fat.
"One-fourth of all a man eats sustains him, the rest he
retains at his peril." — Dr. Abernethy.
As an aid to longevity, the Orientals have
a fixed habit of early rising, and after bath-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 113
ing and rubbing down the body with oil (to
keep the skin smooth and joints supple), they
spend special time in rhythmic breathing for
the purpose of energizing the nasal and res-
piratory tract, taking especial care to fully
change and empty the lungs of residual
air by gently blowing, and to recharge
them slowly with the health-laden oxygen
of the sun-charged early morning atmos-
phere.
The Orientals (better than other races)
understand the value of exposing the skin
of the body to fresh air. They have always
known the skin has an absorbent and res-
piratory function as well as the function of
elimination.
Octogenarians of the Orient could easily
pass for men of fifty years, and careful in-
vestigation has proved that they rarely ex-
hibit in middle life any symptom of sclerosis
of the arteries, so common in men of the
Western Hemisphere, where normal breath-
ing has become a lost art, and where physi-
cians have lost sight of the fact that a
rhythmic use of the diaphragm, adjusts or
prevents high blood pressure, by controlling
the circulation of the blood stream, arousing.
114 Rhythmic Breathing phis
as it does, the electro-chemic function of the
blood to eliminate the deposits zvhich cause
arterial degeneration.
Metchnikoff, in his recent publications, has
submitted the problems of life and death to
the closest investigation. He argues that
death from any cause aside from old age is
accidental rather than inevitable, and that
senile debility before extreme old age is con-
trary to Nature.
El Cornaro, of Padua, an Italian champion
of old age, lived to be one hundred and two
and died without pain. He wrote books in
his eightieth and up to ninety-eighth year of
age, which during the past three and a half
centuries have been translated into many
languages. The following is an extract
from one of his books, written in his ninety-
eighth year :
"The sensual are so entirely devoted to
the gratification of their taste and appetite
that they hold it is better to live through sev-
eral years less, or even enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season, than to be put to the
torment of laying a restraint upon their ap-
petites. Foolish men; they little think of
what importance ten years of life are to a
man, more especially at that adult period of
Olfactory Nerve Influence 115
an healthful Hfe, wherein it is in its highest
pitch of perfection, and the understanding,
wisdom and every kind of virtue are most
vigorous. . . .
"... Eat and drink what is wholesome
and avoid overfeeding. He that is wise
enough to observe this will suffer little from
other inconveniences. The diseases of reple-
tion infallibly destroy the best natural ca-
pacities."
Among the prominent women of the
twentieth century interested in the question
of longevity may be mentioned Mrs. Russell
Sage, who has founded and endowed an
institute for the scientific study and pre-
vention of organic changes that produce old
age.
Many of the best-known men and women
of all ages have done their best work after
middle age. In all branches of poetry, music,
art, science, invention, discoveries, politics
and statesmanship. Recently one of the
most exquisite verses ever inspired by
woman was written by a man no longer
young in praise of the youthful femininity
of a long past middle-aged actress a propos
of her portrayal of a part in Irving's
Charles L;
116 Rhythmic Breathing plus
''In the lone tent, waiting for victory,
She stands, with eyes marred by the mists of
pain.
Like some wan Hly overdrenched with rain;
The clamorous clang of arms, the ensan-
guined sky.
War's ruin and the wreck of chivalry,
To her proud soul no common fear can
bring;
Bravely she tarrieth for her lord, the king,
Her soul aflame with passionate ecstasy.
O Hair of Gold ! O Crimson Lips ! O Face !
Made for the luring and the love of man !
With thee I do forget the toil and stress.
The loveless road that knows no resting place.
Time's straitened pulse, the soul's dread
weariness.
My freedom and my life republican!"
Recently Senator Chauncey Depew, in an
after-dinner speech given on his seventy-
fourth birthday, said in part : 'The first six-
teen years of life is a formative period, when
muscles and brawn are strengthened for
after wear and tear, and the mind is de-
veloping careers in dreamland, and ideals are
vague. The next sixteen are devoted to
making a proper start, and having placed
our feet on the bottom rung of the ladder,
to demonstrate how far and how quickly we
Olfactory Nerve Influence 117
can climb. The next sixteen, if we have
made a mistake and found, as Lincoln ex-
pressed it, 'that we are square pegs trying
to get into round holes,' we go back and try
it all over again, having lost everything but
experience. The rest of life we are busy
making provisions for old age and securing
our proper place with our professions, our
business, our church and our parties, but
when a man passes seventy no question in-
terests him so much as longevity, and when
he passes eighty the subject is still more ab-
sorbing." In the course of his speech Mr.
Depew dated his freedom from almost
chronic rheumatism from the day he stopped
eating flesh and confined himself to a simple
diet. ''Sleep, digestion and clarified vision,
such as I had never known before, have kept
increasing as I dismiss flesh and fowl for
vegetables," he said. With nine-tenths of
the world the greatest happiness in life is the
table, piled with the things one loves to eat
and drink and the pleasures of a gorge.
"But for that," the Senator concluded, "the
hospital and the graveyard would be largely
out of business."
A propos of overeating, Dr. Abernethy
118 Rhythmic Breathing plus
said: "There is no beast of burden in the
world so overloaded as the human stomach."
As first aid to longevity we add a few sug-
gestions to the reader. First and most im-
portant, do not break up long-established
habits, of smoking, eating, and drinking, too
abruptly. Cultivate moderation in all things,
but avoid fads. It is wise to select a dietary,
simple, but suited to our own individual
needs and a personal hygiene suited to indi-
vidual temperament. Occasional exposure
of the whole body to direct rays of sunlight,
or electric arc-light, is a stimulus to meta-
bolism and increases resistance to disease.
Alcohol is always detrimental to the aver-
age power of digestion ; so also is very strong
tea and coffee. The fundamental first aid
to longevity lies in keeping up our birthright
of rhythmic breathing, a physical rhythm
designed by Nature to keep the pulsation of
the human heart in tune with the eternal law
of expansion and contraction that governs
the universe. There is a chemistry of life —
there is also a chemistry of death — in the
unchangeable laws of Nature, the harvest
and the sickle, follow the seed of the earth
and its people.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 119
Nothing adds more zest to the length of
days than a Hvely interest in affairs outside
our own. Hindu Hterature gives us a
beautiful story of a Master who sent the
inconsolable mother of a lovely child (whose
spark of life had been suddenly extinguished
by the poisoned fangs of a snake) to beg
from her neighbors, a few grains of common
seed, but she must only, he told her, accept
the gift from a house in which there had
been no death. After many days she re-
turned to the Master, crying, ''Alas ! I have
found no home through the portal of whose
porch the Angel of Death hath not entered."
Then said the Master, 'Tittle sister, learn
this lesson, your grief is so common the
whole world weeps with you."
As the years roll away from us, let us
cultivate in the hush of our eventide silences,
a closer communion with our souls, and
our responsibilities to our fellow-beings —
while we still have time and mundane op-
portunity to help in the prevention of the
appalling waste of life (from preventable
causes) among the rising tide of human-
itv, those still in their childhood. Let
us strike the words "too late" from our
120 Rhythmic Breathing plus
vocabulary. The time will come soon
enough, for most of us, when we shall have
to realize, that whether it be this world's
possessions, or the remembrance of well do-
ing, ''all we can hold in our cold, dead hands,
is what we have given away." The kindly
deeds, the spoken words, have a longevity all
their own.
It is within the power of every one to leave
their own little niche in this world better
than they found it, and to preserve a serenity
in old age for themselves, by keeping the
heart youthful in its emotions, a personality
radiant with sincerity of purpose, and a sym-
pathy for which the whole world hungers.
''Life's more than breath and the quick
round of blood;
'Tis a great spirit and a busy heart.
We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not
breaths ;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He
most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the
best." — Schiller,
HOMER
Whose Iliad, though written looo years b. c.. is still without
a peer in the realm of epic literature
HOW TO ENERGIZE THE CIRCULATION AND FLATTEN SHOULDER
BLADES
Control breath, slowly extend arms, holding them tense
until a warmth is felt in palms or tips of fingers.
INTRODUCTION TO EXERCISES
Dr. Albert J. Atkins, president San
Francisco and County Society of Physicians
and Surgeons, says : "Dr. Emily Noble's lec-
tures on health are of practical value to all
who have the privilege of hearing her. . . .
They deal with the life principle itself. . . .
Her 'Method for the Millions' should be in
every one's hands."
Practical work along the lines of correct
deep breathing soon convinces the most
skeptical that it is the only method that
polarizes the "electro-chemic" action of all
bodily functions.
In this system we must call our students'
attention to the three great points of differ-
ence between this and other systems taught
in the West:
First — This method must be diaphragm-
atic as well as thoracic, in order that the con-
stant rhythm may move and energize the
internal organs, unconsciously, with every
breath.
Second — A conscious development of
dynamic energy, which can, through nerve
122 Rhythmic Breathing phis
energizing, be diverted to any organ or
tissue of the body and held there long enough
to start up a revitalizing process.
Third — No muscular effort is used in the
exercises, the rhythmic effect of correct
breathing being controlled while the nervous
system is tensed or energized.
A curious fact existing in connection with
deep breathing is that much more air can
be inspired through the left nostril than the
right one. Naturally, every one will doubt
this, but the fact can be verified by any one
at any moment, if they will take the recum-
bent position, and first, note where the breath
responds, when breathing through both nos-
trils; then try shutting off the right nostril,
then the left, and it will be found there is
quite a difference in control of respiratory
muscles. Students must learn, at any early
part of the lessons to control the rhythm
long enough to establish an interval of from
ten to fifty seconds between one breath and
another. That generates a vital force which
controls the nerves and prolongs life.
High-strung nerves can always be quieted by
taking the recumbent position, on the floor
or any unyielding surface, and holding a few
Olfactory Nerve Influence 123
deep breaths, with the abdominal and costal
muscles expanded.
This exercise alone generates vitality and
control of nerves in a manner that no other
method can accomplish, and is the first step
toward the full consciousness of health and
mental and physical balance. The nervous
system radiates its energies like the sun. The
solar plexus is the sun center ; the blood sup-
plies the nervous system, and is its shadow;
together, they form positive and negative
poles, and are the highest vibration of elec-
trical energy in this sphere — i.e., human life.
Students must not lose sight of the fact
that there are only three sources of life —
food, water and air — and that food elements
get their vitality in the blood from inspired
air.
Students must he careful not to attempt
contouring, poise exercises and nerve ener-
gizing until they have thoroughly mastered
the rhythm of the abdominal walls, which
must expand unconsciously with every
breath. In all positions, either lying down,
sitting, standing, walking, sleeping or wak-
ing, with careful attention to these lessons,
any one can so re-establish that diaphragm-
124 Rhythmic Breathmg plus
atic rhythm which every one is really born
with that he will never lose it again. In
from one to three weeks the habit will be so
formed that this rhythm, or law of expan-
sion and contraction, which puts one in vital
touch with the universe, and which vibrates
every internal organ with every breath and
regulates their blood supply, also their func-
tions of excretion and secretion, will take
care of itself, and the old method of chest
expansion only would be fatiguing by com-
parison.
In acquiring the deep breath the left
nostril is used, because it is on the negative
side of the body, and because it quickly over-
comes the habit of high-chest breathing.
Exercise i. To purify the system, inspire
slowly through the left nostril while in the
recumbent position, taking care that the ab-
dominal muscles expand while inspiring;
hold both nostrils shut as long as comfort-
able, then slowly expire through both nos-
trils ; repeat several times, near an open win-
dow. Many diseases that are caused by im-
perfect oxygenation of the blood are cured
by this exercise alone. It is well to take this
exercise in walking also, and after the dia-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 125
phragm rhythm becomes natural, in any
position.
Exercise 2, Students must note the fact
that it is impossible to learn the costal and
diaphragm rhythm at the first few efforts,
excepting in the recumbent position; then it
becomes natural in any position. No muscu-
lar or violent physical culture exercises are
permitted with any of these lessons. All
must be done calmly and quietly, and by
breath control alone — energizing the nerves,
by tensing them in any part of the body, just
as long as the breath can be comfortably held
without muscular effort. In this method
Nature takes care of the chest, and by costal
and abdominal expansion with each inspira-
tion, the lungs gain more elasticity and ex-
pansion and entirely lose the sense of con-
striction that is felt with chest expansion
only. Every purchaser of this book to whom
this or other exercises may not be quite clear
is entitled to a free letter of explanation
from the publisher. Practiced twice a day,
and for about ten minutes, on rising and re-
tiring, this method will keep any one in per-
fect health, if done correctly. Ahne of these
lessons arc occult, obscure or difficult, a
126 Rhythmic Breathing plus
knowledge of which we wish to diffuse
among the milHons all over the world
who are scattering instead of conserving
their life forces. If, for a moment, any of
the exercises causes a feeling of dizziness,
that merely indicates that the circulation is
quickened and the brain getting a better
blood supply. It only lasts a moment and
is beneficial.
Exercise j. When the costal and abdom-
inal rhythm is thoroughly mastered in the
recumbent position, then practice it sitting
and standing and walking.
Exercise 4. The standing posture in deep
breathing is easily learned if the student
stands with the abdomen against a door or
wall, which enables him to feel resistance.
This is usually difficult at first, but with a
little practice is soon overcome, and the ten-
dency to inflate the chest only will be broken.
Also lie upon the floor, face downward.
Exercise 5. In all positions of sitting,
standing and walking carry the chest up and
forward, placing the ball of the foot first
on the ground in walking, instead of the
heel. When the chest is allowed to slump
downward, in sitting or standing, it crowds
bfl
M
>
*■*
2;
bo
.— rj
'—1
-^ O
UJ
•— H
a ■>-'
D
9"^-
3
H
.y >»
li
<
B-s
1- y
U
5?!^
g
£2
H
5?. =!
>«
J:J f«
m
a;
o ii
^
;:8
M
J
O <U
o
•ZJ^
2^
c/l
H
C
2
C^
o
u
■*->
_bfl
o
RIGHT WAY TO STAND AND WALK
Chest Up and forward. Mental impulse of starting to
walk. This flattens abdomen, strengthens torso and
spinal column without conscious effort ; control breath.
ENERGIZING THE WHOLE BODY THROUGH BREATH CONTROL
WITHOUT MUSCULAR EFFORT
Olfactory Nerve Influence 127
all the internal organs out of proper position.
After the student has thoroughly learned to
hold the deep breath with expansion of all
chest diameters, any of the following exer-
cises will help to generate ''a sound mind in
a sound body" by arousing vital energy and
diverting it, through conscious nerve tensing
or energizing, to any part of the body,
always remembering, that the deep breath-
ing interval, held with expansion instead
of contraction, is the keynote to success.
Exercise 6. Control the breath, tense the
hands and arms, and raise them slowly out-
ward and upward, gently swaying the body
forward and backward, and from side to
side, taking a new breath with each move-
ment, always keeping the weight of the body
on the balls of the feet. This radiates en-
ergy to every part of the body, deepens the
voice, and strengthens the vocal register.
Exercise 7. To reduce superfluous flesh,
tense the whole body, kneel on the floor, and
lay forehead on the ground without touching
the floor with hands or arms; then slowly
sway backward as far as possible, taking a
fresh breath with each movement.
Exercise 8. To reduce abdomen and re-
l28 Rhythmic Breathing plus
store contour of waist and loins, lie flat on
the floor, face downwards, and slowly rise
on hands and toes while holding the breath,
and gently lower and raise the body from
the floor; repeat slowly many times — one
movement with each breath. Also, roll on
floor.
Exercise p. A stretching and reaching
movement to restore suppleness of contour :
Tense the whole body; control the breath;
poise on the balls of the feet alternately,
slowly swinging the body, pointing upward
and downward in every possible position and
curve.
Exercise lo. Especially good for poor
circulation, building up the throat and chest,
and improving depth of voice: Stoop for
imaginary weights and, with tensed muscles,
throw them in every direction. Pick up im-
aginary heavy weights and, with tensed
muscles, raise arms up in front, over top of
head, bending and stretching from front to
back slowly.
Exercise ii. Stand in the open doorway,
expand abdomen, hold the breath, grasp the
door posts as high as possible; this will raise
and support the internal organs. Tense the
Note the marvelous provision of Nature in the attach-
ment of the ribs to the breast-bone, each with its own little
strip of cartilage, to admit of expansion when lungs in-
flate. Note also how easily the lower ribs may be perma-
nently injured in the young girl by tight-lacing.
Control breath, raise knee, bend over and touch it with
chin. Excellent for reducing thick waist lines.
Stoop, keeping back straight from hips to neck, sway
from side. Splendid in both sexes for strengthening small
of back.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 129
lower limbs alternately backward and for-
ward, toes pointed downward, knees stiff;
one movement for each breath, controlled as
long as comfortable. This is especially good
for pelvic organs. Also energize whole body
by balancing on alternate feet.
Exercise 12, Especially good for ener-
gizing nerve centers, liver and spleen, and to
divert nerve energy to any organ or tissue of
the body, head, face or throat : Press firmly,
with flat hands, any part of the body, breathe
deeply, expand, and consciously divert the
energy created by the breath to any selected
spot. This same energy can be diverted to
the throat and vocal chords.
Exercises ij, 14., Especially good for
clearing air passages and preventing colds:
Stand by open window (especially on aris-
ing in the morning), close alternately each
nostril with finger and gently inhale up one,
then close it, while exhaling gently down
the other ; then inhale and exhale alternafely
up one and down the other, making it a head
or nasal breath as much as possible. Then
take a long breath, exhale it very slowly,
but forcibly through a pipe-stem; this
energizes the air passages of the nose
130 Rhythmic Breathing plus
and throat, and prevents deafness and
catarrh. Puff cheeks as in blowing exercise.
To strengthen the throat and the vocal
chords, divert the breath to the muscles at the
base of the throat, hold it there by placing
the tongue at the back of the upper front
teeth, where it would be if sounding a
word ending with th^ such as south. Alter-
nately yawn and swallow, which raises and
lowers the glottis to its highest and lowest
limits; sing the sounds oo-haw outside the
lips in one breath. See chapter on Voice
Building.
Many other simple exercises will evofve
in the student's mind. All we ask is, that no
ordinary physical culture or violent muscle
movements be made. Let the rhythmic
breath be the keynote, and write to the pub-
lisher if further explanation be needed. In
all these exercises use expansion, contraction
and resistajtce.
For those who do not yet realize what di-
verting conscious energy to any part of the
body means, they can understand it readily
if they will lie down, take the rhythmic
breath, and control it, while another person
tries to raise an arm or a limb, the student
Olfactory Nerve Influence 131
resisting mentally the effort of the other per-
son as long as the breath can be comfortably
controlled.
Efforts of this nature are particularly use-
ful to invalids and persons of advanced years.
Resistance exercises are the basis of much
of the treatment at foreign watering places,
and would be doubly efficacious if combined
with lessons in rhythmic breathing and con-
trolled breath. In the health culture exer-
cises outlined in this book the reader must
bear in mind that correct breathing involves
the function of smelling.
First, and always, every morning on aris-
ing from slumber, go to an open window and
energize the nasal chambers and air pas-
sages by alternate nostril breathing (see
Exercises 13, 14), and by a close adherence
to the basic principles laid down in this
lesson-book, renewed vitality and the power
to consciously energize or relax every nerve
and muscle will be the reward of the student.
For further instructions, write publisher,
RICHARD B. NOBLE
Huntington Chambers, Boston, Mass.
Jireatljing Crusfabe for tde ^rebention
of Wnbtvtnloai^ in Cttlbten
Organized and Chartered under National and State Laws of U. S. A.
Endorsed by the American International Congress (meeting in
joint session with New York Medico-Legal Society),
November, igo6.
Internationally Recognized as One of the Most Important Educational
Movements of the 20th Century y one that will leave its imprint
on coming generations.
Founder and Assistant Superin-
tendents
Emily Noble (returned from India), New
York City and Boston, Mass., Founder
and Superintendent.
Miss Alys E. Bentley, Director of Music
in Public Schools, Washington, D. C,
Center.
Miss E. C. Westcott, Principal Western
High School, Washington, D. C,
Center.
R. B. Noble, Publisher, Boston, Mass.
(Huntington Chambers.)
Treasurer, William J. Keeley, Esq., New
York City.
Secretary, Mrs. W. J. Keeley, The Ply-
mouth, West 149th Street.
Among the Board of Directors and those
Olfactory Nerve Influence 133
who endorse this movement can be found the
names of some of the most prominent men
and women of the day, including Presidents
of Medical Societies, Army Generals, Sen-
ators, Ministers, Bankers, Editors and Ed-
ucators.
At a meeting held March 27, 1907, by the
promoters and organizers of the above-
named crusade, it was unanimously
Resolved, That the above-mentioned
crusade be, on said date, duly organized and
chartered upon the basis of the annexed
programme.
Whereas, The founder and co-workers
of the above-mentioned crusade, having ma-
tured the plans and work of the past three
years into successful realization and public
recognition, now Resolve to extend and prop-
agate the activity of the crusade as an edu-
cational branch of the physical development
of children.
OBJECT OF THE CRUSADE
To establish centers in all large cities,
where parents and teachers may obtain free
scientific instruction and practical sugges-
tions for the prevention of nasal and pul-
monary troubles in children.
During her recent visit to Washington,
D. C, to lecture (by the invitation of the
Board of Education of the District of Co-
134 Rhythmic Breathing plus
lumbia, Washington, D. C), the founder
personally invited the fullest investigation of
this Crusade of the Surgeons-General of the
Army, Navy and Marine Hospital Service.
And the Board of Directors of this Crusade
and organization cordially invite the investi-
gation and co-operation of all State and
Municipal Boards of Health and Education.
The founder of this Crusade continues to
accept invitations from Medical and School
Boards, Mothers' Congresses, Musical So-
cieties, etc., to give lecture demonstrations on
rhythmic breathing and v^hat its correct de-
velopment means for the human body. Her
''Method for the Millions" v^ho only half
breathe is the key to practical daily physical
regeneration from the cradle to the century
mark. Ella Wheeler Wilcox says of it:
*'. . .of more value to the health of the
growing race than all the scientific books
written by all the physicians of the world.''
'T am simply amazed at the benefit I have
received from the lessons in deep breathing.
This is the greatest thing that has come into
my life as a regenerating force. I wish it
might be taught to all children. I am firmly
of the belief that it would eliminate the
catarrhal and pulmonary troubles character-
istic of this climate." — E. C. Westcott,
Principal, Western High School, Washing-
ton, D. C.
Olfactory Nerve Influence 135
Madras Times, India, July 20, 1901.—
*'Dr. Emily Noble has come to India at the
invitation of some of our most prominent
native gentlemen, to investigate Light and
Electro-Therapeutics in their action on dis-
eases peculiar to India. The lectures of this
gifted woman-physician and lecturer, are
looked forward to with keen interest. She
has come to us with highest credentials, both
medical and social, and to substitute
Dr. E. D. Babitt of California."
Associated Press. — ''Since her return from
the Orient, Emily Noble has exchanged the
medical for the lecture field, and has no rival
in her travel talks of life in other lands. She
has an international reputation as a writer
on health and travel, and has had the unique
distinction of raising the American flag with
full military honors. She is a popular
speaker on the lecture platform, a member of
the Pacific Coast Press Association, the
Medico-Legal Society of New York, the
Women's Health Protective Association of
New York, the American International Con-
gress on Tuberculosis, the English Order of
St. John of Jerusalem, the Red Cross Society
of the United States of America and other
societies of note."
Associated Press, New York, Novem-
ber 15, 1906. — ''Among the best of the many
excellent addresses before the American In-
136 Rhythmic Breathing plus
ternational Congress on Tuberculosis, meet-
ing in joint session with the New York Med-
ico-Legal Society, was one on 'Practical
Methods for the Prevention of Tuberculosis
in Children,' by Dr. Emily Noble of Cali-
fornia."
Much of the work of the founder of this
Crusade is free.
During the past two years more than ten
thousand mothers, and teachers, and children
have been instructed. All are urged to join
an endless chain of Crusaders and unite in
gaining knowledge that will stamp out the
greatest menace to the lives of children the
world has ever known. Knowledge is pozver.
Begin now,
''So are they blessing Emily Noble for her
crusade work against consumption, and so
should Dr. Whitehead be blessed for her
strong words regarding the ignorance of
public school teachers and mothers on this
important subject.
"Mothers and teachers! Why, were they
properly educated in these simple truths, and
properly awakened to their influence, what a
world ours would be!
'T would like to see some one community
put into the hands of four persons for the
next fifteen years and the results carefully
watched. These persons would be Luther
Burbank^ author of 'Training of the Hu-
Olfactory Nerve Influence 137
man Plant' ; Emily Noble, Eugene Christian
and Dr. Whitehead. . . .
"I am very sure that were this done the
community would receive the blue ribbon
of the whole world at the end of fifteen
years for vigorous, healthy, happy and moral
people." — Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Syndi-
cate), May 14, 1908.
EMILY NOBLE,
Murray Hill Hotel,
New York City.
All Rights Reserved
INDEX
Abdomen, obtrusive, 58.
Abernethy, Dr., 117.
Acids, 44, 61.
Acorn, 58.
Adipose, superfluous, 52.
Air, 12.
Air, filtering the, 3.
Air-cells, 8.
Air-sacs, 8.
Alcohol, abstinence from, 32.
American food products, 47.
Anesthesia, 7.
Animal food, abstinence from, 32.
Arterial blood, 7.
Arterial degeneration, 32.
Asepsis, 7.
Atkins, Dr. Albert J., 121.
Auto-massage, 104.
B
Bacteria, 23, 33.
Eaines, A. E., 43.
Banting cure, 60.
Beans, 43.
Beethoven, 85.
Eentley, Alys E., 73.
Biceps, bulgy, 92.
Bleyer, Dr., 80.
Blood, circulation of, 34.
Blood stream, 12, 31.
Blowing exercises, 96.
Body building, 15.
Body building, cellular process
of, 29.
Body, drainage of, 35.
Body, reconstruction of, 31.
Brain workers, 15.
Bread, gluten, 54.
Breath, 12, 14.
Breath, control of the, 15, 68.
Breath exercise, a, 97.
Breath, exhalation of the, 57.
Breathing capacity, natural, 14.
Breathing, cessation of, i.
Breathing, correct, 21, 35.
Breathing, costal, 65.
Breathing, defective, 11.
Breathing, function of, 13.
Breathing gymnastics, 60.
Breathing, high chest, 65, 124.
Breathing muscles, 62.
Breathing, normal, 9, 65.
Breathing, normal, a lost art, 67.
Breathing, rhythm in, 33.
Breathing, value of deep, 25.
Breathing, Yogi system of, 18.
Buttermilk, 32.
Campbell, Dr. Lloyd M., 42.
Capillaries, 8.
Carbon, 54.
Cellular process of body build-
ing, 29.
Cellular tissue, reconstruction
of, 45-
Chemical structures, 2.
Chest, additional measurement
of the, 66.
Chest, overdeveloped, 92.
Chittenden, Professor Russell
H., 38.
Chladni, "jd.
Circulation of the blood, 34.
Circulatory system, 15.
Clergymen's throat, 69.
Cocoa, 43.
Coffee, 43, 61.
"Cohibitio spiritus," 68.
140
Index
Colds, ordinary, 25.
Concentration and relaxation,
los.
Constipation, 52.
Consumptive, chances of, for
complete recovery, 24.
Constrictors, 3.
Contour culture, 99.
Contouring, 123.
Contraction, rhythmic law of,
33-
Corpuscles, 32.
Corpulence, 53.
Corpuscles, function of the, 32.
Creative forces, 31.
Dallas, 68.
Dancing, 94.
Deficient supply of food, 30.
Degeneracy, mental and moral,
45.
Depew, Senator Chauncey, ri6.
Destructive forces, 31.
Dead vegetable matter, 34.
Decaying vegetable matter, 34.
Dextrins, 41.
Diaphragm, 65.
Diet, 44.
Diet, mixed, 54.
Diet, simplicity of, 46.
Dietary, reducing, 61.
Dietetics, simplified, 37.
Dieting for putting on flesh, 60.
Digestion, disturbed, 44.
Dilators, 3.
Dionysius, 59.
Disease, prevention of, 33.
Disease, resistance to, 13.
Eating, aesthetics of, 40.
Edison, Thomas A., 80.
El Cornaro, 114.
Electro-chemic energy, 24.
Electro-chemic processes, 23.
Elephant, the, 35.
Emotions, 58.
Energy, well-directed, 29.
Exercise i, 124.
Exercise 2, 125.
Exercise 3, 126.
Exercise 4, 126.
Exercise 5, 126.
Exercise 6, 127.
Exercise 7, 127.
Exercise 8, 127.
Exercise 9, 128.
Exercise 10, 128.
Exercise 11, 128.
Exercise 12, 129.
Fixer cise 13, 129.
Exercise 14, 129.
Exhalation, 11.
Exercise for reducing waist line,
100, 103.
Exercises for strengthening the
muscles of the eyes, 97.
Exercises, introduction to, rai.
Exercises, respiratory, 35.
Exhaustion, nervous, 15.
Expansion and contraction, law
of, 92, 123.
Expansion, rhythmic law of, 33.
Faraday, 77.
Far East, people of the, 35.
Fat, 55.
Fat people, 58.
Filtering the air, 3.
Fisher, Professor Irving, 39.
Fission, 33.
Fletcherism, 42.
Food, 12, 43, 56.
Food, appearance, odor, and
palatability of, 40.
Food, insufficient, 45.
Food, superfluous, 32.
Foods, highly seasoned, 58.
Foods, starchy, 60.
Index
141
Poods, white, 6r.
Fruits, 43.
Fungi, 33.
Galen, 59.
Galileo, 76.
Geometric scale, a, 76.
Goldsmith, no.
Grain, 43.
Growing old, 55.
Gymnastic appliances, 94.
Haig, Dr, Alexander, 43.
Heart, 57.
Heart disease, 10 1.
Hemholtz, 75.
Henderson, C. Hanford, 74.
Higgins, Dr. Hubert, 42.
Hindu literature, 75.
Hindu story, 119.
Hippocrates, 52, 59.
Human being, 58.
Human body, upbuilding
the, 23.
Human glands, juices of, 23.
of
Infection, germ theory of, 13.
Inhalation, 11.
Japanese, 92.
K
King Solomon, 74.
Life, key to, 13.
Life, sources of, 21,
Light wines, 61.
Longevity, first aid to, 118.
Lung capacity, overtaxing, 14.
Lung development, insufficient,
12.
Lung trouble, predisposition
to, 25.
Lung trouble, signs of early
stages of, 25.
Lungs, 8, 17.
Lymphatic temperament, 53.
Lymphatics, 34.
M
Mahabharatta, the, 84.
Mal-nutrition, 102.
Marga Sangita, 84.
Mastication, thorough, 40.
Metchnikoff, 114.
Milk, 60.
Mixed diet, 54.
Mouth, 13.
Mouth breathing children, 92.
Muscles, throat, 69.
Music, origin of, 81.
N
Nasal fossae, 4.
Nasal hygiene, 7.
Nasal tendencies, prevention of,
12.
Nerve energizing, 123.
Nerves, control of the, 15.
Nervous system, 15.
Nervous system, certain func-
tions of the, 56.
Nitrogenous foods, 53.
Nose, 3.
Nose, functions of the, 3.
Nostrils, 13.
Nutrition, 45.
Nutrition, cellular, 23.
Nutrition, debilitated, 24.
Nutrition, proper, 45.
Nuts, 43.
O
Obesity, dieting for, 60.
Obtrusive abdomen, 58.
142
Index
Old age, germ of, 32.
Old age, postponement of, 33.
Old age, problem of, 22.
Olfactory bulb, 4, 6.
Olfactory nerve bulb, 10.
Olfactory nerve bulb, terminals
of the, 4.
Olfactory nerve influence, 2,
II, 66.
Olfactory mucous membrane, 4.
Olfactory region, 4.
Ordinary colds, 25.
Orientals, the, 112.
Osier, Dr., 7.
Outdoor life, lack of sufficient, 31.
Overeating, 54.
Overwork, 30.
Oxygen, 8.
Oxygen, atmospheric, 7.
Oxygen, lack of, 55.
Oxygenization, 11.
Pastry, 61.
Personal hygiene, value of, 25.
Phagocytes, 23.
Physical culture, 14.
Physical efforts, 54.
Physical endurance, overtaxing,
15-
Physical regeneration, key to,
13.
Physical strength, rapid increase
in, 66.
Plato, 68.
Poise exercises, 123.
Pores, congestion of, 34.
Poverty, 45.
Proteids, 39.
Public speakers, 69.
Puddings, 61.
Pulmonary tendencies, preven-
tion of, 12.
Putting on flesh, dieting for, 60.
Pythagoras, 47.
Ramayana, the, 84.
Reconstruction of cellular tissue,
45-
Reconstruction of the body, 31.
Recumbent position, 122.
Red corpuscles, 32.
Reducing dietary, 61.
Resonators, 4.
Respiration, 11,
Respiration, chemical theory
of, 8.
Respiration, muscles of, 3.
Resiratory exercises, 21.
Respiratory tract, 3.
Rhythm, 92.
Rhythm, normal, 10, 93.
Rhythm and controlled breath,
88.
Rhythmic breath, 14, 17.
Rhythmic breath, how to re-
establish, 22.
Rhythmic breathing, 2, 13, 69,
100.
Rhythmic law of contraction, 33.
Rig Veda, 82.
Rishas, 82.
Sage, Mrs. Russell, 115.
Salads, 54.
Saliva, 23, 40. ■
Sanguine-bilious temperament, 53.
Sanitation, 7.
Saraswati, 81.
Self-control, 29.
Simple living, science of, 41.
Simplicity of diet, 46.
Simplified dietetics, 37.
Sita, 86.
Sound cavities, 4.
Sounds, 63.
Sour milk, 32.
Speaking voice, improving the,
72.
Starch, 41,
Index
143
Stomach, impaired function of
the, 30.
Stout people, 53.
Sub-acid fruits, 61.
Sugar, 60.
Sun, electrical energy bound up
in the, 36.
Superfluous adipose, 52.
Swallowing, 56.
Sweets, 60.
System of irrigation, 30.
Tea, 43, 61.
Thoughts, 58.
Tissues, 34.
Tone placing, 4, 71.
Tone placing, wrong, 72.
Torso, muscles of the, 95.
Tubercle bacilli, 24.
Tuberculosis, germ of, 24.
Tuberculosis, prevention of, 20.
Turkish bath, 60.
Tyndall, 75.
U
Uncooked food, abstinence from,
32.
Universal energy, 2, 56.
Upanishads, 68.
Uric acid, 43.
V
Vegetables, 43.
Vegetables, green, 54.
Venous blood, 7.
Vibrissie, 3.
Vital energy, renewal of. 43,
102.
Vocal chords, 71.
\'ocal sounds, quality of, 71.
Voice building, 4.
Voice building, rightly placed, 62.
W
Wagner, 85.
Water, 12, 45, 46, 61.
Water, hot, 54.
Well-directed energy, 29.
Wheatstone, Professor, 78.
White corpuscles, 32.
Wilson, Dr. James, 46.
Yogi, 19.
Yogi breath, 19.
STUDENTS' NOTES
QPlSl
pNobl©^
N66
1
^Bj
Jj^Hj^uBJi
1
1
^^^^^E?)
Rs b'
mm
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11