situation and they no longer keep their delicate form. They gain perfection of leaf and stalk and bud and flower.

The races of many of the older parts of Europe retain the same lineaments of face and expression, and the same characteristics generation after generation. But bring them out of their surroundings into a better country, with chances of development, and we have a changed being. The old type disappears and the new becomes superior in stature, physique and intelligence. The old man from the oppressed parts of Ireland is a decrepit, forlorn, unintelligent being. His descendants appear in the same phase under the same conditions. But let those descendants change surroundings and conditions and seek new soil, better training for body and mind, and a splendid specimen of his race is the result; the elements of hereditary tendency are overcome by better opportunities.

The belief of heirship in disease should not be allowed to oppress the minds of the race, even if such possibilities may exist under the same conditions and prevailing circumstances. If a father has a form of dyspepsia of long standing and great severity, caused by a combination of unfavorable elements and events, it does not follow that the child should receive the same affliction when he comes into the world with a perfectly healthful digestive apparatus and full of youthful vigor. If an ancestor has a valve of the heart ruptured or injured as the result of some fever, thus causing organic lesions, it seems next to the impossible that a descendant should inherit any such complication, or be any more prone to the trouble than the descendants of a confirmed dyspeptic. If two puny, inferior persons have a family of poor order and similar physique, it seems to be the generally expected result. If two finely formed people, remarkably well balanced in mind and body, truly splendid specimens, have children of plain features, small stature, and but little mind, notwithstanding the fact that such is frequently the case, the observers are generally astonished, but do not lay such a condition to the influence of heredity. Hence it is better for the sake of happiness that such a belief should not control us, and its influence upon the body cannot be overestimated. A child comes into the world and from its very start is made to believe that it must sooner or later generally immediately have either asthma or indigestion or heart disease or consumption, because some one who preceded it was likewise

afflicted. The courage to fight any of these conditions, which might be acquired from without, is entirely destroyed, and they are accepted as the inevitable.

The discussion of the lungs must necessarily embrace that of the entire air passages, including the nose, throat and trachea, and bronchial tubes. It is possible that half the lung diseases may be traced indirectly to some defect in the upper air tract. These various portions or divisions must be considered. They must be complete, perfect, and perform their proper functions without hindrance. The defects are easily remedied, and this should be one of the first duties of those in charge of children. The nose, the proper breathing canal, should be free and admit the full current of air. The nose has within its channels the required elements for clearing the air of dust and foreign particles and warming it for the lower cavity. Any occlusion of the nose compels the air to be taken by the mouth-a most pernicious habit, decidedly disagreeable to the individual, deleterious to the general health, which even causes narrowing of the chest and seriously affects lung capacity. Another result is the deforming of the features of the face and the imparting of a disagreeable expression to the countenance. The current of air passing over the teeth hastens their decay and by that means impairs the bodily condition. These little props of sound health are of vast importance. When one of them is allowed to be taken away the strong constitution is just so much weakened.

The throat is the next channel for the inspired air, and its calibre and surroundings should be sufficient for its conveyance. A bad condition of the membrane, a pair of enlarged tonsils, or a state of inflammation will greatly affect the state of health. Most mothers' tender regard for their offspring will prevent them from proper attention and removal of all the obstacles to the free and perfect passage of air to the lungs, and the little victims are a thousand times more thrust into disease of the lungs than found there by a state of hereditary propensity. It should rather be laid to the unwillingness and perversity of their guardians.

The first step in childhood and youth is to give the lungs a fair chance to fill themselves to their full capacity at each respiration. Limit the supply of air and the result is diminished lung room. These obstacles must all be attended to and removed. They are all of simple origin. The formation of the necessary and proper

inlet to the air readily accomplished, the results are immediate and more than repay the little time and trouble required for this correction. The wheel, well supplied with water, will turn on indefinitely; but diminish the stream, and the whole machinery quickly feels the change and the wheel loses its power. Give the lungs an opportunity to secure, from the outside world, their needed supply of air and the next step will be to toughen them to resist the enemy. The methods are varied and of a most interesting character. The means of training many parts of the body are those of tiresome years of labor. For instance- the training of the muscles of the athlete, or the dexterity of the muscles of the hand required by the musician, or the skilled feet of the rope walker. But the development of the upper contents of the chest wall is pleasant, easy, natural, most invigorating, and most beneficial to the system at large. When the day begins, the first breath of air should fill the lungs to their utmost extent. Every space and every cell should be extended. The breath should be long and deep and without hindrance of any kind. When fully extended, the remotest corners may be reached by blows upon the chest well given by the hand under pressure of the breath, which drives every portion from its collapsed condition. A regular system of prescribed exercises is adopted for carrying out this plan of development breathing gymnastics.

A most agreeable result is obtained by the art of singing, as taught by a competent master. It is a well-known fact, and one frequently commented upon, that singers become very robust in appearance, and of great endurance. The requirements of an opera singer are even greater than those of the blacksmith. Strength, nerve, power, and great endurance are absolute necessities. Good reasons why everybody should learn to sing are found in Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs," published centuries ago, in

the "

1588:

I. It is a knowledge easily taught and quickly learned where there is a good master and an apt pupil.

II. The exercise of singing is delightful to nature and good to preserve the health of man.

III. It doth strengthen all parts of the breast and doth open the pipes.

IV. It is a singularly good remedy for stuttering and stammering in speech.

V. It is the best means to procure a perfect pronunciation and to make a good orator.

VI. It is the only way to know where nature has bestowed a sweet voice, and in many that excellent gift is lost because they want art to express nature.

VII. There is not any music of instrument whatsoever comparable to that which is made of the voices of men, where the voices are good and the same well sorted and ordered.

VIII. The better the voice is, the meeter it is to honor and serve God therewith and the voice of man is chiefly to be employed to that end.

"

"Since singing is so good a thing,

I wish all men would learn to sing."

It would be exceedingly difficult to find a singer in active practice possessing any radical lung difficulty. The principle of taking sufficient breath for sustained measures or long sentences puts every fibre of the elastic lung substance to its full test and leaves no weak spot for accumulating tubercules. Every particle of blood flowing through these elastic meshes must receive their full amount of life-giving oxygen, and the whole system receives unbounded benefit. How often the remark is made about singers that they look as if they could sing." Their very presence inspires the belief that they are in the best of bodily condition possess a jolly disposition, and a buoyancy of spirit which pervades the surrounding atmosphere. A person with a sickly body, surly looks, melancholy disposition, and unhappy character, certainly could not harmonize with a charming voice, nor the idea ever occur to us that such an one could sing. Training produces marvellous results to whatever part of the body it is applied. From the angular and ugly are produced the rotund and the beautiful. Bad voices can be trained to become agreeable, morose dispositions made congenial, undeveloped muscles made round and firm and strong; vicious characters made harmless and gentle, weak lungs made strong and free from disease, and the tendency to short lives changed to the possibility of prolonged existence. The enunciation of the American language has become so depraved except among singers, actors, and a few orators, that listening to our own mother tongue is painful. The poor, undeveloped speaking voice, the nasal twang, or the guttural sounds, or the high-pitched quality, or the something or other about ninetynine out of a hundred voices, makes a truly beautiful language most unmusical. Children in the public schools are allowed to continue all their pernicious habits of intonation, which are disregarded at home.

Many of the modern schools are supplied with vocal teachers, but the principles are not followed up practically in the speaking voice. In society gatherings of educated and literary persons, the brilliant thoughts and learned statements are presented to the listeners with so bad a delivery that half their force is lost to the public.

If the homes of most of the American people should be visited with the intention of listening to the voices of children in their conversation, the flat-nasal or imperfect quality of voice would prevail. They are a proud and ambitious people, anxious for culture, education, and the advancement of their families, and strive to gain for them whatever money can buy for their good. Yet we neglect the most marked accomplishment of all,— a round, clear, full-toned speaking voice.

The children at home are allowed to acquire an unpardonable habit. The bright young people in places of employment are sadly deficient in speaking well, and the children of the farmers obtain a twang to their voices most unbearable. All the result of lack of attention to good speaking. It is frequently asked by foreign nations if the Americans get their bad quality of voice from the Indians. And it is not to be wondered at, when we listen to ourselves and hear the defects. And it is this same continuance of the lack of attention to a full, round, smooth, well-pitched quality of the voice in the family, among all our school teachers, and in general society, which is daily robbing a wonderful lan. guage of its music, its purity, and its grandeur. Singing not only assists enunciation, but also fills the air cells of the lungs in a most complete manner, and strengthens all parts of the breast which contains so many of the vital organs. Care of the external parts of the chest is of considerable importance, as a means of hardening and strengthening its walls, and sending the blood more actively through its channels. Strike the upper part of the chest with the palm of the hand, after dipping it in water, a number of blows on the same side, until a full red color appears, then follow by a vigorous use of a coarse towel.

Proper gymnastics of a general character, intended to strengthen the muscles as a whole, are of value in developing the external parts of shoulders and upper parts of the body.

An important element of health and strength is good air, good food and good water. The first of these is generally supplied and