BREATHING HABITS 153 



the senses of hearing and smelling, but also often causes 

 foul breath and impairs the beauty of the countenance 

 by giving the mouth and teeth a distorted appearance. 

 Many persons seen in classrooms or audiences with 

 mouth open and an unbecoming, half-vacant stare are 

 naturally neither less intelligent nor less pleasing than 

 others; unfortunately they are deformed both in un- 

 derstanding and in appearance by the habit of mouth 

 breathing. Inability to use the nose necessarily causes 

 the mouth to be held open. The deafness resulting 

 from the adenoids or other causes naturally makes 

 them unable to understand readily. Such persons are 

 often given up as hopelessly stupid and uninteresting, 

 when they might become active in mind and pleasing 

 in appearance. 



How can such a desirable transformation be brought 

 about? By having a skillful doctor remove the ade- 

 noids or other obstruction and by seeing to it thereafter 

 that the air is taken in through its proper channel. 

 Even if it happen that only one of the passages is 

 stopped up, the obstruction should be removed with- 

 out delay, for none of us can afford to be without our 

 full equipment for obtaining pure air. 



The stoppage of one nostril often exists for a long 

 time without a person's being aware of the fact. On 

 this account, it is a good plan occasionally to test the 

 nose passages by holding one nostril closed for a mo- 

 ment and compelling the breath to pass through the 

 other. When either passage is found not to be fully 



