BREATHING HABITS 151 



who made use only of the nostrils, escaped with com- 

 paratively little harm. The nose certainly can make 

 poison-laden air less harmful, and the very best air is 

 better fitted for its work after passing through these 

 useful passages. 



The inside of the nose having the normal tempera- 

 ture of the body, ninety-eight and six-tenths degrees, 

 properly warms the cold air in its journey to the deli- 

 cate lung tissue. The mucous lining of the nose may 

 also take up some vapor from air that is too moist. 

 How skillfully the nose is constructed to be the highway 

 of the air to the trachea and lungs, and how strange it 

 is that so many people neglect to make use of this 

 air-warming and cleaning contrivance of nature ! 

 Why is it not just as well to breathe through the 

 mouth? Because the air goes in so rapidly that it is 

 neither properly warmed nor freed from dust. Con- 

 sequently irritation of the mucous membrane and other 

 difficulties of the bronchial tubes result. 



That the shape, size, and extent of the nose passages 

 design them for properly preparing the air we breathe 

 for the lungs, is just as evident as that the teeth were 

 placed in the mouth to prepare the food we eat for the 

 stomach. How ridiculous it would seem to see any one 

 snuffing up food through his nose ! Yet, except at times 

 of most violent exertion, when enough air cannot reach 

 the lungs through the nose channel, the mouth was no 

 more intended as an air passage than the nose was de- 

 signed as a passageway for food. 



