704 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



forte of the future " will be ? We ourselves complacently regard our 

 age and its works, while anticipating the constant progress of the hu- 

 man race and its increasing ability to " reveal itself in tones." 



SNOKING, AND HOW TO STOP IT. 



By JOHN A. WYETH, M. D. 



TO those unacquainted with the mysterious parlance of the anat- 

 omist, the use of strictly scientific terms might prove discour- 

 aging and fail to interest. I shall therefore discard the scie)}tijic in 

 favor of the every-day phrases, in explanation of the following figure 

 (1), which, it will be observed, represents a human head split from 

 above downward through the central line. 



Through the only two channels in which the air travels in going to 

 the lungs, namely, through the nose and mouth, are drawn two arrows, 



Fig. 1. 



a and b. These two passages unite in a common cavity at/, and from 

 that point there is but one tube leading to the lungs. 



At c is a bone called the hard palate, which forms the roof of the 

 mouth and the floor of the nose, separating these two air-channels 

 from each other. At the inner or posterior end of the bone, c, is seen 

 a little body, d, called the soft palate, made of muscle and covered 

 with a delicate skin. This soft palate is attached at one end to c, the 

 hard palate ; the other end hangs loose, and moves or flaps in the act 

 of breathing, something like a window-curtain when acted upon by a 

 current of air. This is its condition while we are asleep or awake, 

 though during sleep it lacks in tonicity, being much more relaxed, or 

 flabby, than when we are awake. At e is represented the tongue. 



