Respiratory exercises in the treatment of disease : notably of the heart, lungs, nervous and digestive systems / by Harry Campbell.

  • Campbell, Harry, 1860-1938.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Respiratory exercises in the treatment of disease : notably of the heart, lungs, nervous and digestive systems / by Harry Campbell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    132/216 (page 120)
    due to mental as well as to muscle expenditure. Indeed, in the very neurasthenic the bare process of thought may be an effort, and the mere effort to think may alone cause exhaustion ; and if such is the case, how much more likely is the putting of thought into speech to do so, seeing that, apart from the muscle expenditure involved in speech, thought is so much more intense when spoken than when unexpressed. Talking may be classified under the heads of colloquial speech, public speaking, and recitatioii, under which we may include reading aloud. In all three the breathing should be as much as possible of the lower thoracic type. The amplitude of respiratory movements required in colloquy is much less than that needed in public speaking and reci- tation, in both of which it is necessary to make the voice . travel a considerable distance, and it is for this very reason that they constitute very effective respiratory exercises. Broadbent has remarked upon the beneficial influence of preaching in heart disease. The good effect is here doubt- less due to the increased amplitude of the respiratory move- ments, and to the help thus afforded to the pulmonary circulation. It is for this reason that I always encourage talking in those suffering from passive engorgement of the lungs, , The breathlessness due to dilatation of the heart ' is often relieved,' observes Sir William Broadbent, ' by ex- ercise of the voice. I have met with numerous instances in which a clergyman has climbed into the pulpit with the utmost difficulty, and has not only preached a sermon comfortably, but has been all the better for it.'* The good result, I take it, in these cases, is attributable to the deep inspirations necessitated by the loud voice required to fill a large building. * See letter by the writer, LanccI, 1891, vol. i., p. 798.