102 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



tuberculosis, but in laryngeal cases it would be counter-indicated. 

 Its practice in pulmonary cases has not been adopted to any very 

 great extent ; but it would seem to have some advantages as it does 

 not involve great muscular fatigue. 



It is well known that public speakers with pulmonary tuberculosis 

 cannot continue this practice with impunity. Their tendency to 

 attempt to increase their weakening vocal powers by forcing the air 

 outward has a bad influence on the lungs. Bad habits of speaking 

 and lack of training are probably accountable for these bad results. 

 Artistic breathing should be cultivated and all public speaking in 

 crowded and badly ventilated halls should be avoided.^ Knopf refers 

 to cases of phthisis ' which had even passed the incipient stage 

 and were cured after following the occupation of street singer or 

 speaker. He cites the case of an English lady who became an 

 evangelist, addressing crowds of people every night in open air meet- 

 ings and who was actually cured of her tuberculous disease after 

 following this calling for a year. 



Our own experience leads us to believe this to be an exceptional 

 result. Having had some experience in treating members of the 

 Salvation Army in various grades of the service, the impression 

 gained was that tubercular disease was quite common among them 

 and that their life of exposure, unhygienic quarters, insufficient food 

 and excessive use of the voice rendered them an easy prey to con- 

 sumption. The voice is almost always over-strained and hoarse and 

 the open air life the members lead is accompanied by hardships 

 which over-balance any favorable features in their nomadic exist- 

 ence. 



Open air singing, properly employed, as in the German Army, 

 is, no doubt, beneficial. This should be encouraged by all military 

 authorities. It relieves the tedium of the march and invigorates the 

 soldier. Barth, of Koslin, has made a thorough study of the efifects 

 of singing on the action of the lungs and heart, on diseases of the 

 heart, on the pulmonary circulation, on the blood, the vocal appara- 

 tus, the upper air passages, the general health, the development of 



^George Hudson Makuen : Artistic Breathing (Philadelphia Medical Jour- 

 nal, Sept. 3, 1898). 



^ S. A. Knopf : Respiratory Exercises in the Prevention and Treatment 

 of Pulmonary Diseases (Johns Hopkins Medical Bulletin, Sept. 1901). 



See also John H. Pryor, Deep Breathing as a Therapeutic and Preventive 

 Measure in Certain Diseases of the Lungs (Trans. Amer. Climat. Ass., Vol. 

 22, 1906, p. 251). 



