Excerpt from My Breathing System It may be a matter of surprise to some that I should add yet another volume to the already lengthy catalogue of booklets on The Art of Breathing. In justification I must state that my first reason is, that I have hitherto found all such works to be too much of the nature of text-books on the so-called art; hence it is now my ambition to bring forward the commonsense book on breathing. And my second reason is that, notwithstanding the scores of older books on breathing, we still meet thousands of persons who are unable to breathe properly - not only children and women, but even sportsmen, singers and scientific men. And thousands and thousands still die of consumption, notwithstanding the fact that this could be prevented merely by teaching the children proper breathing. There is, therefore, still much to be done in this direction. If my booklet contains some repetitions, they are only those which are intentional and such as are always allowed in conveying important advice. I have done my best to write it in the same simple style which has made my former books so popular amongst the general public. I must admit, however, that I fear I may have failed in this respect in the chapter concerning the diaphragm, which contains much professional technicality of language. My only excuse for this is that, during my studies and practical investigations, it struck me that many of the theories of science on that subject were erroneous, and I succumbed to the temptation of proving this to be the case. It has always been my habit to see with my own eyes and think with my own brain, instead of trusting to a long succession of authorities, each of whom has quoted from his predecessor, whilst the original one may have been unworthy of credit. This book has not been translated from the Danish, but has been written by myself in the English language. It is hardly necessary to say that the diction has been corrected and improved by my good friends, Mr. Ernest Gunton and Mr. H. R. Murray, to whom my Publishers entrusted this work. I take this opportunity of tendering to them my most cordial thanks. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.