BREATHING GYMNASTICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 78, 9 April 1913, Page 3

BREATHING GYMNASTICS.

PARIS DOCTOR’S NOVEL i I)KA.

Doctors and the public generally have now almost universally recognised the excellent results obtained by respiratory exercises. Unfortunately the theory and the practice are somewhat complicated, and ;he physician J has not always the time to give fill! I instructions, much less to see them | carried out, whilst the patient gets [ tired of learning a system whose future results he has to take upon faith. Especially in the case of children, the doctor has to teach all the movements by going through them himself, and finally it too often happens that the method is given up on account of the difficulty of applying it. Dr. Pescher, of Paris, has, however, found a solution to the problem by inventing a procedure which is as simple as possible, and which, after three years’ experience, he has found to answer admirably. His method is based upon the law of physics, which allows of a bottle full of water being turned upside down in a basin with some water at, the bottom, without losing snj of its contents, by reason of atmospheric pressure. . But if air is introduced into the bottle by means of a tube, it empties itself of approximately the same quantity of water. To empty a quart bottle, therefore, it would be necessary to blow a quart of air into it. The normal volume of air in an adult lung is about hair a quart per breath drawn. If, therefore,, a Ipatient is made to inspire through the nose as much air as he, can and expirate it into the bottle by means ot a tube, lie will bo undergoing a course of respiratory gymnastics of the easiest sort.

So far as children are concerned, it seems to he rather an amusing game, and anybody can make the “apparatus” with a quart bottle and an ordinary baby’s tube. Dr. Pescher has used this system with all kinds 01 affections, and almost invariably with the best results. He advises beginning with, small bottles, pints for children and quarts for adults, increasing up to;two or even two and a half ana four or four and a half quarts respectively i- The inspiration through the nostrils should be slow and regular, and the expiration likewise. At first the patient should not exhaust absolutely all breath, but later on, as he is in better training, he should be taught: to expel as much as possible of'the residual air. After each time pi rest should be taken at least equal in duration to the 1 exercise itself. Three or ’four’sittings of from 10 to 100 “bottled” 'can be taken in the 24 hours, either-before or an hour and a half after meals. d' u • •r . : *■ 11 j ; .T] i- ■ *' vi i. ,l * i.; - ■’ • M