thing. Children permitted to
breathe in this way grow up with impaired vitality and weakened
constitutions, and in manhood and womanhood break down and become
chronic invalids. The mother of the savage race does better, being
evidently guided by her intuition. She seems to instinctively
recognize that the nostrils are the proper channels for the conveyal
of air to the lungs, and she trains her infant to close its little
lips and breathe through the nose. She tips its head forward when it
is asleep, which attitude closes the lips and makes nostril-breathing
imperative. If our civilized mothers were to adopt the same plan, it
would work a great good for the race.

Many contagious diseases are contracted by the disgusting habit of
mouth-breathing, and many cases of cold and catarrhal affections are
also attributable to the same cause. Many persons who, for the sake of
appearances, keep their mouth closed during the day, persist in
mouth-breathing at night and often contract disease in this way.

Carefully conducted scientific experiments have shown that soldiers
and sailors who sleep with their mouths open are much more liable to
contract contagious diseases than those who breathe properly through
the nostrils. An instance is related in which small-pox became
epidemic on a man-of-war in foreign parts, and every death which
resulted was that of some sailor or marine who was a mouth-breather,
not a single nostril-breather succumbing.

The organs of respiration have their only protective apparatus,
filter, or dust-catcher, in the nostrils. When the breath is taken
through the mouth, there is nothing from mouth to lungs to strain the
air, or to catch the dust and other foreign matter in the air. From
mouth to lungs the dirt or impure substance has a clear track, and the
entire respiratory system is unprotected. And, moreover, such
incorrect breathing admits cold air to the organs, thereby injuring
them. Inflammation of the respiratory organs often results from the
inhalation of cold air through the mouth. The man who breathes through
the mouth at night, always awakens with a parched feeling in the mouth
and a dryness in the throat. He is violating one of nature's laws, and
is sowing the seeds of disease.

Once more, remember that the mouth affords no protection to the
respiratory organs, and cold air, dust and impurities and germs
readily enter by that door. On the other hand, the nostrils and nasal
passages show evidence