SOLAR PLEXUS. 27 



way; when consciousness stops controlling it, the breathing becomes 

 natural. If, then, you are seeking health and vigor, imitate the 

 natural. 



Breathing Exercise. Of marvelous value is the deep breath- 

 ing exercise, which should be taken just as regular as the morning 

 ablution. The best place is somewhere where one can get fresh 

 air, preferably air that the sun has shone on. Then bending back the 

 shoulders, throwing forward the chest and upward the chin, inhale 

 slowly just as much air as the lungs will hold. Hold in this air 

 while you count ten. Exhale it slowly Repeat this four or five 

 times. Then, after a moment's rest, empty the lungs to the utmost, 

 then draw in all the air possible, and when the lungs seem full, draw 

 in just a little more, pack the lungs, as it were, and hold the breatt 

 while you count twenty slowly. Then exhale. You will find this a 

 wonderfully invigorating and health preserving exercise. 



SOLAR PLEXUS. 



The solar plexus, frequently mentioned in the daily press, because 

 some years since a notorious champion prize fighter was defeated by a 

 blow over the region of this mass of nerves, is a great ganglionic net- 

 work of nerves and cells, situated just behind the stomach in front of 

 ihe main artery (known as the aorta) and of the fold of the diaphram. 

 A number of lesser nervous ganglia branch off from it, ten in all, viz.: 

 the phrenic, coeliac, gastric, hepatic, splenic, renal, suprarenal, superior 

 mesenteric, spermatic and inferior mesenteric or epigastric plexus. The 

 special function of this mass or network of nerve cells is not definitely 

 known, but it is known that any injury to it, such as a severe blow, 

 will completely paralyze the victim, while ajiy serious disease affecting 

 the solar plexus proves fatal. 



A physician in Cincinnati, in a treatise on this subject, maintains 

 that the solar plexus is the " third brain " of man, the complete brain 

 consisting of three parts, the cerebrum, cerebellum and solar plexus. 

 The latter acts as a brain whenever from any cause the other brain is 

 incapacitated by sickness or accident, but is not subject to the control 

 of the will. He cited the case ol an infant which lived for six months 

 and yet when at the autopsy its skull was opened, it was found to con 

 tain nothing but serum; it had no brain, while its solar plexus was 

 unusually well developed. Another infant which died soon after birth, 

 yet cried lustily, was found to be entirely devoid of brain. From these 

 and other phenomena he developed the third brain theory and sup- 

 ported it with many plausible reasons and pertinent facts. There may 

 be no special value in these discoveries, so far as known at present, 

 except that it should make us more careful to guard against blows in 

 the region of the stomach or just above the belt. 



