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Show IT'S A (JOOl) OI.I) WOltM) IF YOU KXOW HOW TO HltEATIIE. I onco had tho misfortune to know a pessimist. Thero was some excuse for his pessimism. Ho was n narrow-chested narrow-chested chap threatened with tuberculosis. tuber-culosis. He had given himself up for loat, and tho rest of us wero hoping hop-ing tho end would not bo long delayed. de-layed. Then, ono night, somebody Inducod Indu-cod him to go to a singing school. I saw him a year later. His chest was filled out; thero was a sparkle in his eyo; his laugh could bo heard a city block away. Ho was a resurrected resur-rected and transformed man. What had happened to him? Tho simplest thing in tho world. Ho had simply learned how to breathe. Tho averago mnn or woman goes through lifo with one-third of his or her lung capacity totally unused. That is why, when you run, you got a "stitch in your side." Tho stitch stit-ch is caused by tho unfolding of some of tho lung tissue that you ought to uso but don't. Even when you practice deep breathing exorcises you probably do not (111 your ontlro lung capacity. At least, so Dr. William Leo Howard says in his Interesting now book, Droatho and Ho Well. You oxpand your chest: but tho roally important part of your breathing brea-thing Is dono with your diaphragm a big flat muscle that forms tho floor of your chest. And tho abdominal muscles aro tho boys you need to train If you aro to get tho most out of your diaphragm. diaph-ragm. Fill your lungs until you feel your stomach muscles pressing hard against your belt. That means that your diaphragm has straightened down nnd is massaging mas-saging tho top of your stomach and Intestines helping along with tho process of elimination. Whon you breathe out, do It forcibly, for-cibly, with the stomach muscles: llko a horso snorting but without tho snort. Your stomach and intestines will bo forced up ngalnst tho diaphragm again and given another massage. Breathing In Is Important, but breathing out Is much moro Important. Impor-tant. Most of tho Ills to which modern man Is victim originate In tho Intestines. Intes-tines. And most of thorn nuto-lntoxlca-tlon, constipation would disappear If tho stomach musclos got the exer-clso exer-clso thoy ought to got through deep, forclblo breathing. Doctors havo long known that massago of tho abdomen actually increases in-creases tho number of red corpuscles. corpus-cles. Formerly It was thought that tho massago simply located and chased Into circulation a lot of red corpuscles corpus-cles that wero lying around In blind alleys. That Is part of tho explanation: hero's tho other part: There is accreted in tho suprarenal supraren-al rlandf, as Dr. Howard txplalna, a substance called eplnophrln, a very powerful stimulant to the rod corpuscles. cor-puscles. "Massago of tho abdomen drives the oplnephrln into action, which forces the blood-cells to tako up ox-gon ox-gon ir by proper breathing you aro furnishing tho oxygen." Head sometlmo a book by a man llko Thoreau, or John llurroughs, or Stewart Kdward White ono of tho great open-air wrltois. Then, whllo tho Impression of Its rich, bounding optimism Ih still strong upon ou, pick up a book written by ono or tho Russian novo-llsts, novo-llsts, or by ono of our modern longhaired long-haired writers who bellevo that realism rea-lism necessarily means murder nnd drunkenness nnd prostitution. What a difference! And what makes the difference? The realist will toll jou that It Is becauso ho thinks deeply, whllo tho optomlstlc writer thinks superficially. superfici-ally. As a matter of fact, tho dlffcr-enco dlffcr-enco Is not In tho brains of tho two men, hut In their llvcrn. It Is not the depth of their thinking think-ing so much ns the depth of their lungs. Tho corpuscles of tho ono aro rod and fed with oxygen; the corpuscles of tho othor nro pnlo and fed with cigarette smoke and germs. "Tor what, after all, la LUo?" asks tho old Sanskrit quotation. And answers: "Ufo Is tho Interval between ono breath nnd nnother ho who only half breathes only half lives." Uruco Uarton, IMItor Every Week. |