CHAPTER XXVI 

 OUR LUNGS 



If your clothes are very loose around the waist, take 

 a long, deep breath and see what happens. 



Your ribs rise higher and higher; you get larger 

 around the chest; your waist is bigger. While you are 

 doing this you really feel as if you were working with 

 your body. And so you are: your muscles are pulling 

 up the ribs and you are stretching out the lungs with 

 the air you put into them. In fact, our lungs are like a 

 pair of useful bellows: we pull up the ribs and the air 

 rushes in; we drop them down and the air streams out 

 of the nose and mouth. 



These wonderful bellows work day and night, when 

 we are asleep and when we are awake, from the time we 

 are born until we die ; but how little we think about 

 them ! how little we do to take care of them ! 



Fortunately they are in a strong cage with bones on 

 every side. The backbone is behind, the ribs are on the 

 sides, and the breastbone is in front. 



Some day when your father does not know about it 

 watch to see how many times he draws his breath every 

 minute. Some men breathe fifteen times a minute; an 



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