ELOCUTIONARY DRILL. 18l 



AN ELOCUTIONARY DRILL CHART. 



T. B. BROWNING, M.A. 



The Breath and its Government. — The breathing i-equired in 

 public speaking or reading is a voluntary act which calls into play 



two independent sets or double sets of muscles, and may therefore 

 be considered of two kinds, thorassic and diaphragmatic. The first is 

 more commonly used by women, the second by men. In the first, 

 you alternatelv raise and lower the ribs, that is, expand them up- 

 wai'ds, outwards, side-wise, and towards the back, separating one from 

 the other ; and, again, compress them. The muscles used in the 

 operation act upon the backbone as a fixed line, and their action is 

 said to be in part direct, in part indirect. Figure No. 1 shows the 

 chest as expanded ; in No. 2 it is collapsed. The extension-motions 

 given in the chart to reach these respective positions are similar to 

 the means employed to restore breathing in persons who have been 

 rescued from drowning, and, in certain cases well-known to the 

 medical faculty, to produce or increase respiration in young children. 

 Figure No. 3 exemplifies the action of the diaphragm. 



Ordinarily in public reading or speaking, we should inhale noise- 

 lessly and throiTgh the nostiils only. If you raise the tongue against 

 the roof of the mouth at the same time that you dilate the nosti'ils 

 and contract the respiratory muscles, you may fill the lungs in an 

 instant without closing the mouth. Times occur when you must 

 draw your breath throiigh the mouth and with noise, as in gasping ; 

 for example, where disease is simulated or trying situations are de- 

 picted ; but, except where a pronounced effect is to be produced, such 

 labored inhalation should be avoided, as both prejudicial to health 

 and destructive of vocal ])ower. 



