£*•

252 ESOTERIC ANTHROPOLOGY.
creased in rapidity. In a close stage coach, a railroad
car, a steamboat, a church, a theater,
or a concert
room, unless the greatest care is taken to ventilate
them, by carrying off the foul air and admitting the
pure, the atmosphere becomes totally unfit for respira
tion. It is debilitating from its want of oxygen, deadly
from its carbonic acid, and poisonous from the filthy
emanations of people filled with all sorts of diseases.
A pure air, then, is of absolute necessity to the blood,
and of consequence to the whole vital organism. It is
also necessary that having a pure air, we breathe it.
We must have as quantity well as quality. If respira
tion is impeded in any way, it is a cause of disease.
The chest should be dilated to its utmost compass. It
must never be cramped by a stooping attitude. Every
muscle of respiration must act with freedom. Neither
the ribs, nor the muscles of the chest, nor the dia
phragm, nor the muscles of the abdomen, which are
the chief agents in expiration, should be in the least
impeded by any dress or ligature.
By day and by night, at all times and in all places,
sleeping and waking, we should have pure air, and
breathe it plentifully. Of miasms, and other delete
rious qualities to be avoided, I shall speak further on
when treating of the causes of disease.
OF EXERCISE.
Next to food and air, as Conditions of Health, comes
exercise. I use this word here, as the reader will
soon find, in a wide sense. By it I mean the activity
of every organ and function in man, but especially all
voluntary functions. These are all placed under the