ic world regarding the functions of the respiratory organs,
and the part in the human economy played by the breath. In subsequent
chapters we will give the additional theories and ascertained facts of
the Oriental school of thought and research. The Oriental accepts the
theories and facts of his Western brothers (which have been known to
him for centuries) and adds thereto much that the latter do not now
accept, but which they will in due time "discover" and which, after
renaming, they will present to the world as a great truth.

Before taking up the Western idea, it will perhaps be better to give a
hasty general idea of the Organs of Respiration.

The Organs of Respiration consist of the lungs and the air passages
leading to them. The lungs are two in number, and occupy the pleural
chamber of the thorax, one en each side of the median line, being
separated from each other by the heart, the greater blood vessels and
the larger air tubes. Each lung is free in all directions, except at
the root, which consists chiefly of the bronchi, arteries and veins
connecting the lungs with the trachea and heart. The lungs are spongy
and porous, and their tissues are very elastic. They are covered with
a delicately constructed but strong sac, known as the pleural sac, one
wall of which closely adheres to the lung, and the other to the inner
wall of the chest, and which secretes a fluid which allows the inner
surfaces of the walls to glide easily upon each other in the act of
breathing.

The Air Passages consist of the interior of the nose, pharynx, larynx,
windpipe or trachea, and the bronchial tubes. When we breathe, we draw
in the air through the nose, in which it is warmed by contact with the
mucous membrane, which is richly supplied with blood, and after it has
passed through the pharynx and larynx it passes into the trachea or
windpipe, which subdivides into numerous tubes called the bronchial
tubes (bronchia), which in turn subdivide into and terminate in minute
subdivisions in all the small air spaces in the lungs, of which the
lungs contain millions. A writer has stated that if the air cells of
the lungs were spread out over an unbroken surface, they would cover
an area of fourteen thousand square feet.

The air is drawn into the lungs by the action of the diaphragm, a
great, strong, flat, sheet-like muscle, stretched across the chest,
separating the chest-box from the abdomen. The diaphragm's action is
almost as automatic