SUMMARY OF MATERIAL BREATHING. 107 



Thus far, we recognize a scale of physiological truths pertaining 

 to the respiration, and which we may distinguish into vegetable, 

 animal and human. The doctrine which recognizes the lungs as 

 providers of air, is on the vegetable level; well for it, if it does not 

 think that it is talking about men, when it concerns only cabbages. 

 For plants are like men in this particular, of taking in and giving 

 out air. The doctrine which regards breathing as of use for motion, 

 belongs properly to animal physiology. Lastly, that doctrine which 

 considers the psychological part of breathing, or the manner in 

 which the motion embodies, represents and carries out those facul- 

 ties of thought, feeling and action, and those destinies that are 

 peculiarly human, is proper human physiology. So each thing is 

 named and characterized from its own essence, and from nothing 

 either beneath it or above it. 



This concludes our present study of the effects that the lungs pro- 

 duce upon the exterior, and thereby upon the interiors of the frame ; 

 we observe that they endow every organ with outward life, courage 

 and spirit, and call forth its talents in its daily work by the influ- 

 ence of attraction. And the attraction being most general, is 

 common to all the members, which therefore, conspire or breathe 

 together for realizing the goods of life, and thence come under a 

 genuine law of association. 



Now as truths always point out duties, there is something im- 

 mediately practical which arises from our view of the importance 

 of the movements of the lungs. If each organ contributes its 

 share to the ensemble of life, each demands a special care in the 

 maintenance of health, which is the wealth of life. Much has 

 been written, and justly, upon tight lacing, as injurious both to 

 the development and stability of the body. But if our ideas be 

 correct, the duty of leaving the chest and the body free, becomes ten- 

 fold more imperative than before. If motion be the essence of the life 

 of the organs, and if it extends to the whole frame and to the limbs, 

 then all articles of apparel may fairly be supervised and limited in 

 their pressure, in order to give our persons their lawful liberty. In 

 this case the emancipation of the body itself is a subject of indivi- 

 dual and domestic politics of the utmost importance, and the science 

 of every organ should wring a progressive Magna Charta of dress 



