PHYSICAL TRAINING 153 



more room in which to work. A little knowledge 

 of anatomy and physiology has led these authors 

 astray ; they do not recognise that a vacuum 

 cannot be produced in the chest and the ribs are 

 moulded to the shape of the underlying organs. 



The circulation of the blood is not only necessary 

 for the nutrition and purification of the body, but 

 is also a means for regulating the temperature of 

 the body by the exposure of more or less blood 

 in the numerous small blood-vessels of the skin. 

 Exercise and life in the open air train and increase 

 the capacity for this adjustment. 



The Respiratory System interests every man, for 

 he regards the first breath at birth as a proof of 

 life and the last breath as evidence of death. It 

 is only natural, therefore, that it should have re- 

 ceived the special attention of authors of systems 

 of physical culture. They argue that special breath- 

 ing exercises are necessary to make the lungs more 

 efficient in their work of absorbing the life-giving 

 oxygen and discharging the poisonous gas, carbon 

 dioxide. Such breathing exercises, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that they have been approved by the 

 Board of Education, are absurd in theory and 

 useless or even dangerous in practice. The body 

 is a living organism, not a blast furnace ; it does 

 not take up more oxygen than it requires, how- 

 ever much the lungs are ventilated, and if too 

 much carbon dioxide be removed the subject 



