THE BREATHING OF TnE BODY. 103 



only at the times when the organ draws it or expels it. In a word, 

 at the organs the jurisdiction of the heart and arteries ceases ; and 

 that of the organ itself begins. 



To complete the empire of the respiration, we notice that the 

 muscles and limbs breathe like the rest. During repose this is more 

 difficult to show, but even then, if we attend carefully to the draw 

 of the expansion passing from the belly down the legs, we shall 

 find that the skin tends out in an inverse pyramid from the loins to 

 the toes and heels; like trowsers tight at the bottom, but expanding 

 and contracting above, and chiefly at the top. While, however, we 

 are at rest, the respiration of the limbs is scarcely noticeable, be- 

 yond the parts, of the arms and thighs immediately contiguous to 

 the body. But when we rise into motion, and the will comes forth, 

 the effect is different; and in powerful volitions and actions a limb 

 of air becomes steel, runs rigorously down to our toes and fingers. 

 The skin is braced so tight, that the muscles threaten to start 

 through it, and the will in the same manner menaces to bare itself 

 by throwing off the muscles. The clothes and the body fly out like 

 concentric planetary rings in a rapid vortex. The man becomes 

 more and more of air; he ceases to lie, he ceases to sit, he ceases 

 to stand, and, like an elastic sphere bounding upon a point, the ball 

 of the foot is his only contact with the ground. This is the extreme 

 effect of the aeration of his limbs. He has become a bird for that 

 moment, and can then fly through difficulties, which are the atmo- 

 sphere of these great actions of the lungs. 



The lungs, then, are consenting organs in muscular and gymnas- 

 tic efforts, and precise muscles of breath or spirit lie under the mus- 

 cles of flesh, and lend them force, hardness, and sphere in their 

 operations. 



It is also to be remarked, that as inspiration commences a poste- 

 riori, or from the muscular system, and as all the muscles concur 

 to it more or less, so the inspiratory effort may commence from any 

 part of the frame, and the breathing will be differenced according 

 to the part. In ordinary normal breathing, the thoracic and inter- 

 costal muscles appear to begin the act; but in pleurisy the centre 

 of operations is changed, the breathing becomes " abdominal," and 

 the action upon the chest is secondary. In like manner, any mus- 



