BREATH of LIFE 
or 
mal-Respiration. 
and its 
effects upon the enjoyments life of man. 
By 
Author of " Notes of frauds amongst the North Amn. Indians" 
&c., &c., &c. 
JOHN WILEY, tfEW/TORK, 
i 8 "6T7 Preface. 
No perfon on Earth who reads this little work will condemn 
it: it is only a queftion how many millions may look through 
it and benefit themfelves by adopting its precepts. 
THE AUTHOR. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S61, by 
JOHN WILEY, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 
R. CRAIGHEAD, 
Printer, Stereolyper, and Electrotyper, 
Claxton iBuilUing, 
81. 83, and 85 Centre Street. WE 
BREATH OF LIFE. 
This communication being made in the confident belief that 
very many of its Readers may draw from it hints of the higheft 
importance to the enjoyment and prolongation of their lives, 
requires no other apology for its appearance, nor detention of 
the Reader from the information which it is defigned to convey. 
With the reading portion of the world it is generally known 
that I have devoted the greater part of my life in vifiting, and 
recording the looks of, the various native Races of North and 
South America; and during thofe refearches, obferving the 
healthy condition and phyfical perfedion of thofe people, in 
their primitive Hate, as controlled with the deplorable mortality, 
the numerous difeafes and deformities, in civilized communi- 
ties, I have been led to fearch for, and able, I believe, to dis- 
cover, the main caufes leading to fuch different refults. 
During my Ethnographic labours amongft thofe wild people 
I have vifited 150 Tribes, containing more than two millions of 
fouls; and therefore have had, in all probability, more extenfive 
opportunities than any other man living, of examining their 
fanitary fyftem; and if from thofe examinations I have arrived 
at refults of importance to the health and exigence of man- 4 
THE BREATH OF LIFE 
kind, I (hall have achieved a double objed in a devoted and 
toilfome life, and fhall enjoy a twofold fatisfadion in making 
them known to the world; and particularly to the Medical 
Faculty, who may perhaps turn them to good account.* 
Man is known to be the moft perfedly conftructed of all 
the animals, and confequently he can endure more : he can out- 
travel the Horfe, the Dog, the Ox, or any other animal; he can 
faft longer; his natural life is faid to be " three fcore and ten 
years," while its real, average length, in civilized communities, is 
but half equal to that of the brutes whofe natural term is not 
one third as long! 
This enormous difproportion might be attributed to fome 
natural phylical deficiency in the conftrudion of Man, were it 
not that we find him in fome phafes of Savage life, enjoying 
almoft equal exemption from difeafe and premature death, as 
the Brute creations ; leading us to the irrefiftible conclufion that 
there is fome lamentable fault yet overlooked in the fanitary 
economy of civilized life. 
The human Race and the various brute-fpecies have alike 
been created for certain refpedive terms of exiftence, and wifely 
fupplied with the phylical means of fupporting that exiftence 
to its intended and natural end; and with the two creations, 
thefe powers would alike anfwer, as intended, for the whole term 
* As the information contained in this little work is believed to be of equal 
importance to all daffies of fociety, and of all Nations, the Author has endeavoured 
to render it in the iimpleft poffible form, free from ambiguity of expreffion and 
profeffional technicality of language, that all may be able alike to appreciate it; 
and if the work contains feveral brief repetitions, they are only thofe which were 
intended, and fuch as always allowed, and even difficult to be avoided, in convey- 
ing important advice. THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
5 
of natural life, except from fome hereditary deficiency, or fome 
practifed abufe. 
The horfe, the dog, the ox, and others of the brute crea- 
tions, we are affured by the breeders of thofe animals, are but 
little fubject to the fatal difeafes of the lungs and others of the 
refpiratory or digeftive organs; nor to diieafes of the fpine, to 
Idiocy or Deafnefs; and their teeth continuing to perform their 
intended functions to the clofe of natural life, not one in a hun- 
dred of thefe animals, with proper care and a fufficiency of food, 
would fail to reach that period, unlefs deftroyed by intention or 
accident. 
Mankind are everywhere a departure from this fanitary con- 
dition, though the Native Races oftentimes prefent a near 
approach to it, as I have witnefled amongft the Tribes of North 
and South America, amongft whom, in their primitive condition, 
the above-mentioned difeafes are feldom heard of; and the 
almoft unexceptional regularity, beauty, and foundnefs of their 
teeth laft them to advanced life and old age. 
In civilized communities, better fheltered, lefs expofed, and 
with the aid of the ableft profeffional (kill, the fanitary condi- 
tion of mankind, with its variety, its complication and fatality 
of difeafes-its aches and pains, and mental and phyfical 
deformities, prefents a more lamentable and mournful lift, which 
plainly indicates the exiftence of fome extraordinary, latent 
caufe, not as yet fufficiently appreciated, and which it is the foie 
objeft of this little work to expofe. 
From the Bills of Mortality which are annually produced 
in the civilized world, we learn that in London and other large 
towns in England, and cities of the Continent, on an average, 
one half of the human Race die before they reach the age of five 6 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
years, and one half of the remainder die before they reach the 
age of twenty-five, thus leaving but one in four to fliare the 
chances of lading from the age of twenty-five to old age. 
Statidical accounts fhowed not many years pad, that in 
London, one half of the children died under three years, ip 
Stockholm, one half died under two years, and in Mancheder, 
one half died under five years; but owing to recent improved 
fanitary regulations, the numbers of premature deaths in thofe 
cities are much diminiflied, leaving the average proportions as 
fird given, no doubt, very near the truth, at the prefent time; 
and dill a lamentable datement for the contemplation of the 
world, by which is feen the frightful gauntlet that civilized man 
runs in his paffage through life. 
The fanitary condition of the Savage Races of North and 
South America, a few indances of which I fliall give, not by 
quoting a variety of authors, but from edimates carefully made 
by myfelf, whild travelling among thofe people, will be found 
to prefent a driking contrad to thofe jud mentioned, and fo 
widely different as naturally, and veryjudly, to raife the inquiry 
into the caufes leading to fuch diffimilar refults. 
Several very refpedable and credible modern writers have 
undertaken to fliow, from a hod of authors, that premature 
mortality is greater amongd the Savage, than amongd the Civi- 
lized Races ; which is by no means true, excepting amongd 
thofe communities of favages who have been corrupted, and 
their fimple and temperate modes of life changed by the diffi- 
pations and vices introduced among them by civilized people. 
In order to draw a fair contrad between the refults of habits 
amongd the two races, it is neceffary to contemplate the two 
people living in the uninvaded habits peculiar to each ; and it THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
7 
would be well alfo, for the writer who draws thofe contrails, 
to fee with his own eyes, the cuftoms of the native Races, and 
obtain his information from the lips of the people themfelves, 
inftead of trufting to a long fucceffion of authorities, each of 
which has quoted from his predeceffor, when the original one 
has been unworthy of credit or has gained his information from 
unreliable, or ignorant, or malicious fources. 
There is, perhaps, no other fubject upon which hiftorians 
and other writers are more liable to lead the world into errone- 
ous conclufions than that of the true native cuftoms and cha- 
rader of Aboriginal Races; and that from the univerfal dread 
and fear which have generally deterred hiftorians and other men 
of Science from penetrating the folitudes inhabited by thefe 
people, in the pradice of their primitive modes. 
There always exifts a broad and moving barrier between 
favage and civilized communities, where the firft fliaking of 
hands and acquaintance take place, and over which the demo- 
ralizing and deadly effeds of diffipation are taught and prac- 
tifed; and from which, unfortunately, both for the charader of 
the barbarous races and the benefit of fcience, the cuftoms and 
the perfonal appearance of the favage are gathered and portrayed 
to the world. 
It has been too much upon this field that hiftorians and 
other writers have drawn for the exaggerated accounts which 
have been publiflied, of the exceffive mortality amongft the 
favage Races of America, leading the world to believe that 
the adual premature wafte of life caufed by the diffipations 
and vices introduced, with the accompanying changes in the 
modes of living in fuch diftrids, were the proper ftatiftics of 
thofe people. 8 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
I have vifited thefe femi-civilized degradations of favage 
life in every degree of latitude in North America, and to a 
great extent alfo in Central and South America, and as far as 
this fyftem extends, I agree with thofe writers who have con- 
tended in general terms, that premature mortality is proportion- 
ally greater amongft the Native Races than in Civilized com- 
munities; but as I have alfo extended my vifits and my inqui- 
ries into the tribes in the fame latitudes, living in their primitive 
hate, and practifing their native modes, I offer myfelf as a 
living witnefs, that whilft in that condition, the Native Races 
in North and South America are a healthier people, and lefs 
fubject to premature mortality (fave from the accidents of War 
and the Chafe, and alfo from Small-pox and other peftilential 
difeafes introduced amongft them), than any civilized Race in 
exiftence. 
Amongft a people who preferve no Records and gather no 
Statiftics, it has been impoffible to obtain exaEt accounts of their 
annual deaths, or ftrid proportionate eftimates of deaths before 
and between certain ages ; but from verbal eftimates given me 
by the Chiefs and Medical men in the various tribes, and whofe 
ftatements may in general be relied on as very near the truth, 
there is no doubt but I have been able to obtain information on 
thefe points which may fafely be relied on as a juft average of 
the premature mortality in many of thofe Tribes, and which 
we have a right to believe would be found to be much the 
fame in moft of the others. 
As to the melancholy proportions of deaths of children in 
civilized communities already given, there is certainly no parallel 
to it to be found amongft the North or South American Tribes, 
where they are living according to their primitive modes; nor THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
9 
do I believe that a fimilar mortality can be found amongft the 
children of any aboriginal race on any part of the globe. 
Amongft the North American Indians, at all events, where 
two or three children are generally the utmoft refults of a mar- 
riage, fuch a rate of mortality could not exift without foon 
depopulating the country; and as ajuftification of the general 
remark I have made, the few following inftances of the nume- 
rous eftimates which I received and recorded amongft the various 
tribes, I offer in the belief that they will be received as matters 
for aftonifhment, calling for fome explanation of the caufes of 
fo wide a contraft between the Bills of Mortality in the two 
Races. 
Whilft refiding in a fmall village of Guarani of 250 perfons, 
on the banks of the Rio Trombutas, in Brazil; amongft the 
queftions which I put to the Chief, I defired to know as near as 
poffible, the number of children under 10 years of age, which 
his village had loft within the laft 10 years, a fpace of time over 
which his recollection could reach with tolerable accuracy. 
After he and his wife had talked the thing over for fome time, 
they together made the following reply, viz.-that " they could 
recoiled but three deaths of children within that fpace of time : 
one of thefe was drowned, a fecond one was killed by the kick 
of a horfe, and the third one was bitten by a Rattle Snake." 
This fmall tribe, or Band, living near the bafe of the Acarai 
Mountains, refembled very much in their perfonal appearance 
and modes of life, the numerous bands around them; all 
mounted on good horfes; living in a country of great profufion, 
both of animal and vegetable food. 
The " Sleepy Eyes," a celebrated chief of a Band of Sioux, 10 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
in North America, living between the head-waters of the Miffis- 
fippi and Miffouri Rivers, in reply to limilar queftions, alfo told 
me that in his band of 1500, he could not learn from the women 
that they had loft any of their children in that time, except 
fome two or three who had died from accidents. He told me 
that the women of his tribe had no inftances of ftill-born chil- 
dren; and they feemed not even to know the meaning of 
" Abortions." 
I afked him if any of their children were ever known to die 
from the pains of cutting their teeth, to which he replied, that 
they always feem to fuffer more or lefs at that period; but that 
he did not believe that in the whole Sioux Tribe a child ever 
died from that caufe. 
This Tribe I found living in their primitive condition. 
Amongft the tribe of Mandans, on the upper Miffouri, a 
tribe of 2000, and living entirely in their primitive ftate, I 
learned from the Chiefs, that the death of a child under the age 
of 1 o years was a very unufual occurrence ; and from an exami- 
nation of the dead bodies in their Cemetery, at the back of their 
village, which were enveloped in (kins, and retting feparately 
on little fcaffolds of poles erected on the prairies, amongtt fome 
150 of fuch, I could difcover but the embalmments of eleven 
children, which ttrongly corroborated in my mind, the ftatements 
made to me by the Chiefs, as to the unfrequency of the deaths 
of children under the age above-mentioned; and which I found 
ftill further, if not more ftrongly, corroborated in the collection 
of human Skulls preferved and lying on the ground underneath 
the fcaffolds. 
By the cuftom peculiar to this tribe, when the fcaffolds THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
11 
decay, on which the bodies reft, and fall to the ground, the 
fkulls, which are bleached, are carefully and fuperftitioufly pre- 
ferved in several large circles on the ground; and amongft 
feveral hundreds of thefe fkulls, I was forcibly ftruck with the 
almoft incredibly fmall proportion of crania of children; and 
even more fo, in the almoft unexceptional completenefs and 
foundnefs (and total abfence of malformation) of their beauti- 
ful fets of teeth, of all ages, which are fcrupuloufly kept 
together, by the lower jaws being attached to the other bones 
of the head." 
In this Tribe of 2000, I learned alfo from the chiefs, that 
there was not an inftance of Idiocy or Lunacy-of crooked fopine 
* A fhort time after I had defcribed to the World the beautiful formation and 
polifh of the teeth in thefe ikulls, the forceps came, and (like the mod of thole 
left in the Indian graves on the frontiers), the mod beautiful of them, which had 
chewed Buffalo meat for 25 years or a half century, are now chewing Bread and 
Butter in various parts of the World. 12 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
(or hunch-back), of Deaf and Dumb, or of other deformity of a 
difabling kind. 
The inftances which I have thus far hated, as rather extra- 
ordinary cafes of the healthfulnefs of their children, in the above 
tribes, are neverthelefs, not far different from many others which 
I have recorded in the numerous tribes which I have vifited; 
and the apparently lingular exemption of the Mandans, which I 
have mentioned, from mental and phyfical deformities, is by 
no means peculiar to that tribe; but, almoft without exception, 
is applicable to all the tribes of the American Continent, where 
they are living in their primitive condition, and according to 
their original modes. 
This Tribe sublifts chiefly on Buffalo meat, and maize or 
Indian corn, which they raifed to a conliderable extent. 
Amongft two millions of thefe wild people whom I have 
vifited, I never faw, or heard of a hunch-back (crooked fpine) 
though my inquiries were made in every tribe; nor did I ever 
fee an Idiot or Lunatic amongft them, though I heard of fome 
three or four, during my travels, and perhaps of as many Deaf 
and Dumb.* 
* Some writers upon whom the world have relied for a correft account of the 
cuftoms of the American Indians, have affigned as the caufe of the almoft entire 
abfence of mental and phyfical deformities amongft thefe people, that they are in 
the habit of putting to death all who are thus afflifted; but fuch is not only an 
unfounded and unjuft, but difgraceful affiimption on the part of thofe by whom 
the opinions of the world have been led; for, on the contrary, in every one of the 
few very cafes of the kind, which I have met or could hear of, amongft two millions 
of thefe people, thefe unfortunate creatures were not only fupplied and protected 
with extraordinary care and fympathy, but were in all cafes guarded with a THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
13 
Shar-re-tar-rufiie, an aged and venerable chief of the Pawnee- 
pus, a powerful tribe living on the head-waters of the Arkanias 
River, at the bafe of the Rocky Mountains, told me in anfwer 
to queftions, " we very feldom lofe a fmall child-none of our 
women have ever died in childbirth-they have no medical 
attendance on thefe occafions-we have no idiots or lunatics- 
nor any Deaf and Dumb, or Hunch-backs, and our children 
never die in teething." 
This Tribe I found living entirely in their primitive hate; 
their food, Buffalo flefh and Maize, or Indian corn. 
Ski-fe-ro-ka, chief of the Kiowas, a fmall Tribe, on the head- 
waters of the Red River, in Weftern Texas, replied to me, 
" my wife and I have loft two of our fmall children, and perhaps 
ten or twelve have died in the tribe in the laft ten years-we 
have loft none of our children by teething-we have no Idiots, 
no Deaf and Dumb, nor hunch-backs." 
This Tribe I found living in their primitive condition, their 
food Buffalo flefti and venison. 
Cler-mont, chief of the Ofages, replied to my queftions, 
"before my people began to ufe 'fire-waterit was a very 
unufual thing for any of our women to lofe their children ; but 
I am lorry to lay that we lofe a great many of them now; we 
have no Fools (Idiots), no Deaf and Dumb, and no hunch-backs 
-our women never die in childbirth nor have dead children. 
Naw-kaw, chief of the Winnebagoes, in Wifconfin, the 
juperjlitious care, as the probable receptacles of fome important myftery, defigned 
by the Great Spirit, for the undoubted benefit of the families or T. ribes to which 
they belonged. 14 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
remnant of a numerous and warlike tribe, now femi-civilized 
and reduced, " our children are not now near fo healthy as they 
were when I was a young man; it was then a very rare thing 
for a woman to lofe her child ; now it is a very difficult thing to 
raife them,"-to which his wife added-" lince our hulbands have 
taken to drink fo much whifkey our babies are not fo ftrong, 
and the greater portion of them die; we cannot keep them 
alive." The chief continued, " we have no Idiots, no Deaf and 
Dumb, and no hunch-backs; our women never die in childbirth, 
and they do not allow Doftors to attend them on fuch occa- 
lions." 
Food of this Tribe, Fifh, venifon, and vegetables. 
Kce-mon-faw, chief of the Kajkajkias, on the Miffouri, once a 
powerful and warlike tribe, told me that he could recoiled when 
the children of his tribe were very numerous and very healthy, 
and they had then no Idiots, no deaf and dumb, nor hunch- 
backs; but that the fmall-pox and whifkey had killed off the 
men and women, and the children died very fad. " My Mother," 
faid he, " who is very old, and my little fon and myfelf, all of 
whom are now before you, are all that are left in my tribe, and 
I am the chief!" 
The above, which are but a very few of the numerous efti- 
mates which I have gathered, when compared with the ftatiftics 
of premature deaths and mental and phyfical deformities in 
civilized communities, form a contraft fo ftriking, between the 
limitary conditions of the two Races who are bom the (lime, 
and whofe terms of natural life are intended to be equal, as 
plainly to fliow, that through the vale of their exiftence, in 
civilized Races, there muft be fome hidden caufe of difeafe not THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
15 
yet fufficiently appreciated, and which the Materia Medica has 
not effectually reached. 
Under this convidion I have been ftimulated to fearch 
amongft the Savage Races for the caufes of their exemption 
from, and amongft the civilized communities for the caufes of 
their fubjeffion to, fo great a calamity, and this I believe I have 
difcovered, commencing in the cradle, and accompanying 
civilized mankind through the painful gauntlet of life to the 
grave; and in poffeffion of this information, when I look into 
the habits of fuch communities, and fee the operations of this 
caufe, and its lamentable effefts, I am not in the leaft aftoniflied 
at the frightful refults which the lifts of mortality fliow; but it 
is matter of furprife to me that they are not even more lament- 
able, and that Nature can fuccefsfully battle fo long as file does, 
againft the abufes with which die often has to contend. 
This caufe I believe to be the Ample negleft to fecure the 
vital and intended advantages to be derived from quiet and 
natural deep ; the great phyfician and reftorer of mankind, both 
Savage and Civil, as well as of the Brute creations. 
Man's cares and fatigues of the day become a daily difeafe, 
for which quiet deep is the cure; and the All-wife Creator has 
fo conftructed him that his breathing lungs fupport him through 
that deep, like a perfeft machine, regulating the digeftion of the 
ftomach and the circulation of the blood, and carrying repole 
and reft to the utmoft extremity of every limb; and for the 
proteftion and healthy working of this machine through the 
hours of repofe, He has formed him with noftrils intended for 
meafuring and tempering the air that feeds this moving prin- 
ciple and fountain of life; and in proportion as the quieting 
and reftoring induence of the lungs in natural repofe, is carried 16 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
to every limb and every organ, fo in unnatural and abufed repofe, 
do they fend their complaints to the extremities of the fyftem, 
in various difeafes; and under continued abufe, fall to pieces 
■themfelves, carrying inevitable dedrudion of the fabric with 
them in their decay. 
The two great and primary phafes in life and mutually 
dependant on each other, are zvaking and feeding ; and the abufe 
of either is fure to interfere with the other. For the fird of 
thefe there needs a lifetime of teaching and pradice ; but for 
the enjoyment of the latter, man needs no teaching, provided 
the regulations of the All-wise Maker and Teacher can have 
their way, and are not contravened by pernicious habits or 
erroneous teaching. 
If man's unconfcious exidence for nearly one-third of the 
hours of his breathing life depends from one moment to another, 
upon the air that palfes through his noflrils; and his repofe 
during thofe hours, and his bodily health and enjoyment between 
them, depend upon the foothed and tempered charader of the 
currents that are paffed through his nofe to his lungs, how 
myfteriouily intricate in its condrudion and important in its 
fundions is that feature, and how difaltrous may be the omiflion 
in education which fandions a departure from the full and 
natural ufe of this wife arrangement ? 
When I have feen a poor Indian woman in the wildernefs, 
lowering her infant from the bread, and prefling its lips together 
as it falls afleep in its cradle in the open air, and afterwards 
looked into the Indian multitude for the refults of fuch a prac- 
tice, I have faid to myfelf, " glorious education ! fuch a Mother 
deferves to be the nurfe of Emperors." And when I have feen 
the careful, tender mothers in civilized life, covering the faces of THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
17 
their infants deeping in overheated rooms, with their little 
mouths open and gafping for breath; and afterwards looked 
into the multitude, I have been ftruck with the evident evil and 
lafting refults of this incipient ftage of education; and have 
been more forcibly ftruck, and (hocked, when I have looked 
into the Bills of Mortality, which I believe to be fo frightfully 
fwelled by the refults of this habit, thus contrafted, and pradifed 
in contravention to Nature's defign. 
There is no animal in nature excepting Man, that deeps with 
the mouth open; and with mankind, I believe the habit, which 
is not natural, is, generally confined to civilized communities, 
where he is nurtured and raifed amidft enervating luxuries and 
unnatural warmth, where the habit is eafily contracted, but car- 
ried and practifed with great danger to life in different latitudes 
and different climates; and, in fudden changes of temperature,, 
even in his own houfe. 
The phyfical conformation of man alone affords fufficient 
proof that this is a habit againft inftind, and that he was made, 
like the other animals, to deep with his mouth fliut-fupplying 
the lungs with vital air through the noftrils, the natural channels; 
and a ftrong corroboration of this fad is to be met with amongft 
the North American Indians, who ftridly adhere to Nature's 
law in this refped, and fliow the beneficial refults in their fine 
and manly forms, and exemption from mental and phyfical 
difeafes, as has been ftated. 
The Savage infant, like the offspring of the brute, breathing 
the natural and wholefome air, generally from inftind, clofes its 
mouth during its deep; and in all cafes of exception the mother 
rigidly (and cruelly, if neceffary) enforces Nature's Law in the 
manner explained, until the habit is fixed for life, of the 18 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
importance of which (lie feems to be perfedly well aware. But 
wrhen we turn to civilized life, with all its comforts, its luxuries, 
its fcience, and its Medical (kill, our pity is entitled for the tender 
germs of humanity, brought forth and careffed in fmothered 
atmofpheres which they can only breathe with their mouths 
wide open, and nurtured with too much thoughtleflhefs to pre- 
vent their contracting a habit which is to fliorten their days 
with the croup in infancy, or to turn their brains to Idiocy or 
Lunacy, and their fpines to curvatures-or in manhood, their 
deep to fatigue and the nightmare, and their lungs and their 
lives to premature decay." 
If the habit of fleeping with the mouth open is fo deftruc- 
tive to the human conftitution, and is caufed by fleeping in 
confined and overheated air, and this under the imprudent func- 
tion of mothers, they become the primary caufes of the mifery 
of their own offspring; and to them, chiefly, the world muft 
look for the correction of the error, and, confequently, the bene- 
faction of mankind. They fliould firfl be made acquainted 
with the fad that their infants don't require heated air, and that 
* The weekly Bills of Mortality in London (how an amount of io, 15, and 
fometimes 20 deaths of infants per week, from fuffbcation, in bed with their 
parents; and Mr. Wakley, in May, i860, in an inqueft on an infant, hated that 
" he had held inquefts over more than 100 Infants which had died during the pah 
winter, from the fame caufe, their parents covering them entirely over, compelling 
them to breathe their own breath."-Times. 
The Registrar General (hows an average of over 700,000 infants born in Eng- 
land per annum, and over 100,000, w'hich die under one year of age-12,738 of 
thefe of Bronchitis, 3,660 from the pains of teething, and 19,000 of convulffons, 
and fays, " fuffbcation in bed, by overlaying or {hutting off" the air from the child, 
is the molt frequent caufe of violent deaths of children in England." THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
!9 
they had better fleep with their heads out of the window than 
under their mother's arms-that middle-aged and old people 
require more warmth, than children, and that to embrace their 
infants in their arms in their fleep during the night, is to fubjed 
them to the heat of their own bodies; added to that of feather 
beds and overheated rooms, the relaxing effeds of which have 
been mentioned, with their pitiable and fatal confequences. 
There are many, of courfe, in all ranks and grades of 
fociety, who efcape from contrading this early and dangerous 
habit, and others who commence it in childhood, or in manhood, 
a very few of whom live and fuffer under it to old age, with 
conhitutions fufficiently ftrong to fupport Nature in her defperate 
and continuous druggie againft abufe. 
When we obferve amongft very aged perfons that they 
almoft uniformly clofe the mouth firmly, we are regarding the 
refults of a long pradifed and healthy habit, and the furviving 
few who have thereby efcaped the fatal confequences of the 
evil pradice I am condemning. 
Though the majority of civilized people are more or lefs 
addided to the habit I am fpeaking of, comparatively few will 
admit that they are fubjed to it. They go to fleep and awake, 
with their mouths fliut, not knowing that the infidious enemy, 
like the deadly Vampire that imperceptibly fucks the blood, 
gently heals upon them in their fleep and does its work of death 
whilft they are unconfcious of the evil. 
Few people can be. convinced that they fnore in their fleep, 
for the fnoring is hopped when they awake; and fo with breath- 
ing through the mouth, which is generally the caufe of fnoring- 
the moment that confcioufnefs arrives the mouth is clofed, and 
Nature refumes her ufual courfe. 20 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
Ill natural afid refrefliing deep, man breathes but little air; 
his pulfe is low; and in the moll perfed- hate of repofe he 
almoft ceafes to exift. This is neceffary, and molt wifely ordered, 
that his lungs; as well as his limbs, may reft from the' labour 
and excitements, of the day. / 
Too much deep is often faid to be deftrudive to health ; but 
very few perfons will deep too much for their health, provided 
they deep in the right way. Unnatural deep, which is irritating 
to the lungs and the nervous fyfterh, fails to afford that reft 
which deep was intended to give, and the longer one lies in it, 
the lefs will be the enjoyment and length of his life. Any one 
waking in the morning at his ufu'al hour of riling, and finding 
by the drynefs of his mouth, that he has been deeping with the 
mouth open, feels fatigued, and a wifll to go to deep again; 
and, convinced that his reft has not been good, he is ready to 
admit the truth of the ftatement above made. 
There is no perfed deep for man or brute, with the mouth 
open; it is unnatural, and a ftrain upon1 the lungs which the 
expreffion of the countenance and the nervous excitement 
• .1 ■' » 
plainly fiiow. • 
Lambs, which are nearly as tender as human infants, com- 
mence immediately .after they are born, to breathe the chilling 
air of March and April, both night and day, adeep and awake, 
which they are able to do, becaufe they breathe it in the way 
that Nature defigned them to breathe. New-born infants in 
the Savage Tribes are expofed to- nearly the fame neceflity, 
which they endure perfedly well, and there is. no feafon why 
the oppofite extreme fliould be pradifed in the civilized world, 
entailing fo much misfortune and mifery on mankind. 
It is a pity that at the very fiarting point of life-Man fliould THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
21 
be flatted wrong-that mothers fliould be under the erroneous 
belief that while their infants are awake they muft be watched; 
but afleep, they are " doing well enough." 
Education is twofold, mental and phyfical; the latter of 
which alone, at this early ftage, can be commenced; and the 
mother fliould know that deep, which is the great renovater and 
regulator of health, and in fad, the food of life, fliould be 
enjoyed in the manner which Nature has defigned; .and there- 
fore that her clofeft fcrutiny and watchfulnefs, like that of the 
poor Indian woman, fliould guard her infant in thofe important 
hours, when the (hooting germs of conftitution are flatting, on 
which are to depend the happinefs or mifery of her offspring. 
It requires no more than common fenfe to perceive that 
Mankind, like all the Brute creations, fliould clofe their mouths 
when they clofe their eyes in deep, and breathe through their 
noftrils, which were evidently made for that, purpofe, inftead of 
dropping the under jaw and drawing an over draught of cold 
air di redly on the lungs, through the mouth; and that in the 
middle of the night, when the fires have gone down and the air 
is at its coldeft temperature-the fyftem at rest, and the lungs 
the leaft able to withftand the (hock. 
For thofe who have differed with weaknefs of the lungs or 
other difeafes of the cheft, there needs no proof.of this fad; 
and of thofe, if any, who are yet incredulous, it only requires 
that they fliould take a candle in their hand and look at their 
friends afleep and fnoring; or with the Nightmare (or without 
it), with, their eyes (hut and their mouths wide open-the very 
pidures of diftrefs-of differing, of Idiocy, and Death ; when 
Nature defigned that they fliould be fmiling in the foothing and 
invigorating forgetfulnefs; of the fatigues and anxieties of the 22 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
day, which are diffolving into pleafurable and dreamy fhadows 
of "realities gone by." 
Who ever waked out of a fit of the Nightmare in the mid- 
dle of the night with his mouth ftrained open and dried to a 
hulk, not knowing when, or from where, the faliva was coming 
to moiften it again, without being willing to admit the mifchief 
that fuch a habit might be doing to the lungs, and confequently THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
23 
to the ftomach, the brain, the nerves, and every other organ of 
the fyftem1? 
Who, like myfelf, has fuffered from boyhood to middle 
age, everything but death from this enervating and unnatural 
habit, and then, by a determined and uncompromising effort, has 
thrown it off, and gained, as it were, a new leafe of life and the 
enjoyment of reft-which have lafted him to an advanced age 
through all expofures and privations, without admitting the 
mifchief of its confequences ? 
Nothing is more certain than that for the prefervation of 
human health and life, that moft myfterious and incomprehenfi- 
ble, felf-ading principle of life which fupports us through the 
reftoring and unconfcious vale of fleep, fliould be protected and 
aided in every way which Nature has prepared for the purpofe, 
and not abufed and deranged by forcing the means of its fup- 
port through a different channel. 
We are told that "the breath of life was breathed into 
man's noftrils"-then why fliould he not continue to live by 
breathing it in the fame manner ?* 
* A recently invented aid for the lungs, which the ufual efforts for pecuniary 
refults, and the accuftomed and unfortunate rage for novelties have been pufhing 
into extcnfive ufe, has been doing great mifchief in fociety during the laft few 
years; and by its injudicious ufe, I believe thoufands on thoufands have been 
hurried to the grave. I refer to the " Refpirators," fo extenfively in ufe, and as 
generally " in fafhion," amongft the Fair Sex. For perfons very weak in the 
lungs, and who have contrafled the habit fo ftrong and fo long that they cannot 
breathe excepting through the open mouth, this appliance may be beneficial, in 
the open air; but thoufands of others, to be eccentric or fafhionable, place it 
over their mouths when they ftep into the ftreet; and to make any ufe of it, muft 
open their mouths and breathe through it, by which indifcretion they are thought- 24 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
The mouth of man, as well as that of the brutes, was made 
for the reception and maftication of food for the ftomach, and 
other purpofes; but the noftrils, with their delicate and fibrous 
linings for purifying and warming the air in its paffage, have 
been myfteriously conftruded, and deligned to ftand guard over 
the lungs-to meafure the air and equalize its draughts, during 
the hours of repofe. 
The atmofphere is nowhere pure enough for man's breath- 
ing until it has pafled this myfterious refining procefs ; and 
therefore the imprudence and danger of admitting it in an 
unnatural way, in double quantities, upon the lungs, and 
charged with the furrounding epidemic or contagious infedions 
of the moment. 
The impurities of the air which are arrefted by the intricate 
organizations and mucus in the nofe are thrown out again from 
its interior barriers by the returning breath; and the tingling 
excitements of the few which pafs them, caufe the mufcular 
involitions of fneezing, by which they are violently and fuccefs 
fully refilled. 
The air which enters the lungs is as different from that 
which enters the noftrils as diftilled water is different from the 
water in an ordinary ciftern or a frog-pond. The arrefting and 
purifying procefs of the nofe, upon the atmofphere with its 
poifonous ingredients, palling through it, though lefs perceptible, 
is not lefs diftind, nor lefs important than that of the mouth, 
leflly contracting the moll dangerous habit which they can fubjeft themfelves to, 
and oftentimes catching their death in a few days, or in a few hours; little aware 
that clofed lips are the bell protection againll cold air, and their nollrils the best 
and fafeft of all Refpirators. THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
25 
which hops cherry-hones and filh-bones from entering the 
ftomach. 
This intricate organization in the ftrudure of man, unac- 
countable as it is, feems in a meafure divefted of myflery, when 
we find the fame phenomena (and others perhaps even more 
furprifing) in the phyfical conformation of the lower order of 
animals; and we are again more aftonifhed when we fee the 
myfterious fenfitivenefs of that organ inftin.dively and inflan- 
taneoufly feparating the gafes, as well as arrefting and rejeding 
the material impurities of the atmofphere. 
This unaccountable phenomenon is feen in many cafes. We 
fee the fifh, furrounded with water, breathing the air upon 
which it exifts. It is a known fad that man can inhale through 
his nofe, for a certain time, mephitic air, in the bottom of a well, 
without harm; but if he opens his mouth to anfwer a quellion, 
or calls for help, in that pofition, his lungs are clofed and he 
expires. Moll animals are able to inhale the fame for a confi- 
derable time without deftrudion of life, and, no doubt, folely 
from the fad that their refpiration is through the noftfils, in 
which the poifonous effluvia are arrefted. 
There are many mineral and vegetable poifons alfo, which 
can be inhaled by the nofe without harm, but if taken through 
the mouth deftroy life. And fo with poifonous reptiles, and 
poifonous animals. The man who kills the Rattlefnake, or the 
Copperhead, and Hands alone over it, keeps his mouth fliut, and 
receives no harm; but if he has companions with him, with 
whom he is converting over the carcales of thefe reptiles, he 
inhales the poifonous effluvia through the mouth, and becomes 
deadly tick, and in fome inftances death enfues. 
Infinitefimal infeds alfo, not vitible to the naked eye, are 26 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
inhabiting every drop of water we drink and every breath of 
air we breathe ; and minute particles of vegetable fubftances, as 
well as of poifonous minerals, and even glafs and (ilex, which 
float imperceptibly in the air, are difcovered coating the refpira- 
tory organs of man; and the clafs of birds which catch their 
food in the air with open mouths as they fly, receive thefe 
things in quantities, even in the hollow of their bones, where 
they are carried and lodged by the currents of air, and detected 
by microfcopic inveftigation. 
Againft the approach of thefe things to the lungs and to the 
eye, Nature has prepared the guard by the mucous and organic 
arrangements, calculated to arrelt their progrefs. Were it not 
for the liquid in the eye, arrefting, neutralizing, and carrying 
out the particles of dull communicated through the atmofphere, 
Man would fbon become blind; and but for the mucus in his 
noftrils, abforbing and carrying off the poifonous particles and 
effluvia for the protedion of the lungs and the brain, mental 
derangement, confumption of the lungs, and death would 
enfue. 
How eafy, and how reafonable, it is to fuppofe then, that 
the inhalation of fuch things to the lungs through the expanded 
mouth and throat may be a caufe of confumption and other 
fatal difeafes attaching to the refpiratory organs; and how fair 
a fuppofition alfo, that the deaths from the dreadful Epidemics, 
fuch as Cholera, Yellow Fever, and other peftilences, are caufed 
by the inhalation of animalcules in the infeded diftrids; and 
that the vidims to thofe difeafes are thofe portions of fociety 
who inhale the greateft quantities of thofe poifonous infeds to 
the lungs and to the ftomach. 
In man's waking hours, when his limbs, and mufcles, and THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
27 
his mind, are all in adion, there may be but little harm in inhal- 
ing through the mouth, if he be in a healthy atmolphere; and 
at moments of violent adion and excitement, it may be neces- 
fary. But when he lies down at night to reft from the fatigues 
of the day, and yields his fyftem and all his energies to the 
repofe of fleep; and his volition and all his powers of refiftance 
are giving way to its quieting influence, if he gradually opens 
his mouth to its wideft ftrain, he lets the enemy in that chills his 
lungs-that racks his brain-that paralyfes his ftomach-that 
gives him the nightmare-brings him Imps and Fairies that 
dance before him during the night; and during the following day, 
headache-toothache-rheumatifm-dyfpeplia, and the gout. 
That man knows not the pleafure of fleep; he rifes in 
the morning more fatigued than when he retired to reft-takes 
pills and remedies through the day, and renews his difeafe every 
night. A guilty confcience is even a better guarantee for 
peaceful reft than fuch a treatment of the lungs during the 
hours of fleep. Deftrudive irritation of the nervous fyftem 
and inflammation of the lungs, with their confequences, are the 
immediate refults of this unnatural habit; and its continued 
and more remote effefts, confumption of the lungs and 
death. 
Befides this frequent and moft fatal of all difeafes, Bron- 
chitis, Quinfey, Croup, Afthma, and other difeafes of the refpi- 
ratory organs, as well as Dyfpeplia, gout of the ftomach, 
Rickets, Diarrhoea, difeafes of the liver, the heart, the Ipine, 
and the whole of the nervous fyftem, from the brain to the toes, 
may chiefly be attributed to this deadly and unnatural habit; 
and any Phyfician can eafily explain the manner in which thefe 
various parts of the fyftem are thus affefted by the derangement 28 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
of the natural functions of the machine that gives them life 
and motion. 
All perfons going to fleep fhould think, not of their bufinefs,' 
not of their riches or poverty, their pains.or their pleafures, 
but, of what are of infinitely greater importance to them, their 
lungs; their belt friends, that have' kept them alive through the 
day, and from whofe quiet and peaceful repofe they are to look 
for happinefs and ftrength during the toils of the following 
day. They fhould firft recoiled that their natural food is frefli 
air; and next, that the channels prepared for the fupply of that 
food are the noftrils, which are fupplied with the means of 
purifying the food for the lungs, as the mouth is conftruded to 
feled and mafticate the food for the ftomach. The lungs 
fhould be put to reft as a fond Mother lulls her infant to fleep ; 
they fhould be fupplied with vital air, and proteded in the 
natural ufe of it; and for fuch care, each fucceflive day would 
repay in increafed pleafures and enjoyments. 
The lungs and the ftomach are too near neighbours not to 
be mutually affeded by abufes offered to the one or the other; 
they both have their natural food, and the natural and appro- 
priate means prepared by which it is to be received. Air is 
the efpecial food of the lungs, and not of the Stomach. He 
who fleeps with his mouth open draws cold air and its impuri- 
ties into the ftomach as well as into the lungs; and various 
difeafes of the ftomach, with indigeftion and dyfpepfia, are the 
confequences. Bread may almoft as well be taken into the 
lungs, as cold air and wind into the ftomach. 
A very great proportion of human difeafes are attributed to 
the ftomach, and are there met and treated; yet I believe they 
have a higher origin, the lungs; upon the healthy and regular THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
29 
adion .of which the digeffive, as well as the refpiratory and 
nervpus- fyftems depend ; the moving, aftive, principle of life, 
and life itfelf are there; and whatever deranges the natural 
action at that fountain affeds every fundion of the body. 
The ftomach performs its indifpenfable, but fecondary part, 
whilft the moving motive power is in healthy adion, and no 
longer. Man can exift feveral days without food, and but 
about as many minutes, without the adion of his lungs, Men 
habitually fay " they don't deep well, becaufe fomething is 
wrong in their ftomachs," when the truth may be, that their 
ftomachs are wrong becaufe fomething is wrong in their deep. 
If this dependent affinity in the human fyftem be ttue, 
befetting man's life with fo many dangers flowing from the 
abufe of his lungs, with the fad that the brute creations are 
exempt from all of thefe dangers, and the favages in the 
wildemefs nearly fo, how important is the queffion which it 
raifes whether the frightful and unaccountable Bills of Mor- 
tality amongft the civilized Races of mankind are not greatly 
augmented, if not chiefly caufed, by this error of life, beginning, 
as I have faid, in the cradle, and becoming by habit, as it were, 
afecond to weary and torment Mankind to their graves*? 
Man is created, we are told, to live three fcore and ten 
years, but how fmall a proportion of mankind reach that age, 
or half way, or even a quarter of the way to it! We learn 
from the official Reports before alluded to, that in civilized 
communities, one half or more perilh in infancy or childhood, 
and one half of the remainder between that and the age of 25, 
and. Phyficians tell us the difeafes they die of; but who tells us 
of the canfes of thofe difeafes*? All effeds have their caufes-• 
difeafe is the caufe of death-and there is a caufe for difeafe 3° 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
When we fee the Brute creations exempted from premature 
death, and thq Savage Races comparatively fo, whilft civilized 
communities fhow fuch lamentable Bills of Mortality, it is but 
a rational deduction that that fatality is the refult of habits not 
pradifed by favages and the brute creations; and what other 
charaderiftic differences .in the habits of the three creations ftrike 
us as fo diftindly different, and fo proportioned to the refults, 
as already fhown; the firjl, with the mouth always (hut; the 
Jecond, with .it fliut during the night and moll of the day; and 
the third, with it open mod of the day and all of the night "? 
The firjl of thefe are free from difeafe ; the Jecond, comparatively 
fo; and the third fhow the lamentable refults in the Bills of 
Mortality already given. 
How forcible and natural is the dedudion from thefe fads, 
that here may be the great and principal caufe of fuch widely 
different refults, ftrengthened by the other fads, that the greater 
part of the fatal difeafes of the body as well as difeafes of the 
mind, before mentioned, are fuch as could, and would flow, from 
fuch an unnatural abufe of the lungs, the fountain and main- 
fpring of life; and how important alfo, is the queftion raifed by 
thefe fads, how far fuch an unnatural habit expofes the human 
race to the dangers from Epidemic difeafes. The Brute crea- 
tions are everywhere free from Cholera and Yellow fever, and 
I am a living witnefs that the Aflatic Cholera of 1831, was 
everywhere arrefted on the United States frontier, when in its 
progrefs it reached the Savage tribes living in their primitive 
condition; having been a traveller on thofe frontiers during its 
ravages in thofe regions. 
Epidemic difeafes are undoubtedly communicated through 
the medium of the atmofphere, in poifonous animalcules or THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
31 
infedious agents; and what conclulion can be more rational, 
than that he who Heeps with his mouth open during the night, 
drawing an increased quantity of infeded atmofphere diredly on 
the lungs and into the ftomach, will increafe his chances of con- 
trading the difeafe ? And how interefting to Science, and how 
infinitely important to the Welfare of the Human Race might yet 
he the enquiry, whether the thoufands and millions of vidims to 
Cholera and yellow fever, were not thofe very portions of fociety 
who were in the habit of fleeping with their mouths open, in 
the diftrids infeded with thofe awful fcourges!* 
It is a well-known fad that fifties will die. in a few moments, 
in their own element, with their mouths kept open by the hook ; 
and I ftrongly doubt whether a horfe or an ox would live any 
length of time, with its mouth faftened open with a block of 
wood, during the accuftomed hours of its repofe; and I believe 
* My opinions on this important fubjeft having been formed many years ago, 
as feen in the foregoing pages, I have had opportunities of making obfervations of 
an interefting nature, in my recent travels; and amongft thofe opportunities, one 
of the moft impreffive, whilft I was making the voyage on one of the Mail 
Steamers from Montevideo to Pernambuco, on the coaft of Brazil, in the fummer 
of 1857, during which melancholy voyage about 30 out of 80 paflengers died of 
the Yellow fever, and were launched from the deck into the fea, according to the 
cullom. Having been twice tried by that difeafe on former occalions, and confe- 
quently feeling little or no alarm for myfelf, I gave all my time and attention to 
the affiftance of thofe who were afflicted. Aware of the difficulty of clofing the 
mouth of a corpfe whofe mouth has been habitually open through life, and obferv- 
ing that nearly every one launched from the veffiel had the charafter and expres- 
fion ftrongly impreffive of the refults of that habit, I was irrefiftibly led to a 
private and fecret fcanning of faces at the table and on deck, and of fix or feven 
perfons for whom I had confequent apprehenfions, I obferved their feats were in a 
day or two vacated, and afterwards I recognifed their faces, when brought on 
deck, as fubjects for the laft, fad ceremony. 32 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
that the derangement of the fyftem by fuch an experiment 
would be fimilar to that, in the. human frame, and that death 
would be fooner and, more certain; and I believe alfo, that if the 
American Races of Savages which I have vifited, had treated 
this fubject with the lame indifference and abufe, they would 
long fince have loft (if not have ceafed to exift) that decided 
advantage which they now hold, over the civilized Races, in 
manly beauty and fymmetry of phyfical conformation; and that 
their Bills of Mortality would exhibit a much nearer approxi- 
mation to thofe of civilized communities than they now do." 
Befides the lift of fatal difeafes already given, and which I 
attribute chiefly to the pernicious habit which I have explained, 
there are other refults affecting the fenfes, perfonal appearance, 
and the enjoyments of life, which, though not fatal, are them- 
felves of fufficient importance to demand its corredion; fuch 
as Curvature of the Spine, Idiocy, Deafnefs, Nightmare, Polypus 
in the Nofe, Malformation and premature decay of the teeth, 
toothache, tic-douloureux, Rheumatifm, Gout, and many others, 
to which the brute creations are ftrangers, and to moft of which 
the Savage Races are but little fubject. 
By another reference to the Statiftics of civilized Societies, 
we find that in fome, one half per cent, are Idiots or Lunatics; 
one-third per cent, are Deaf and Dumb, one half per cent, are 
hunch-backs, and from three-fourths to one per cent, of other 
difabling difeafes and deformities; all of which are almoft 
* I have before faid that the Brute creations are everywhere free from Cholera, 
Yellow fever, and other epidemics; yet they are as fubject as the human fpecies, 
to the effects of other poifons. Who knows until it is tried, how long a horfe, an 
ox, or a dog could exift in one of thofe infefted diftrifls, with its mouth fattened 
open, and its noftrils clofed ?' THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
33 
unknown to the American Native Races; affording a ftrong 
corroborative proof, if it were neceffary, that fuch deficiencies 
and deformities are the refults of accidents or habits, and not 
the works of Nature's hand. 
Nature produces no difeafes, nor deformities; but the off- 
fpring of men and women whofe fyftems are impaired by the 
habits which have been alluded to, are no doubt oftentimes 
ufhered into the world with conftitutional weakneffes and predi- 
lections for contrading the fame habits, with their refults; and 
it is fafe to fay, that three-fourths of the generating portions of 
every civilized community exifting, are more or lefs under thefe 
disqualifications, which, together with want of proper care of 
their offspring, in infancy and childhood, I believe to be the 
caufe of four-fifths of the mental and phyfical deformities, lofs of 
teeth, and premature deaths, between conception and infancy, 
childhood, manhood, and old age. 
I have faid that no difeafes are natural, and deformities, 
mental and phyfical, are neither hereditary nor natural, but purely 
the refults of accidents or habits. A cloven-foot produces no 
cloven-feet, hunch-backs beget ftraight fpines, and mental defor- 
mities can have no progeny. 
What a fad bill to bring againft the glorious advantages of 
civilized life, its improvements, its comforts and refinements, that in 
England there are fomething like 35,000 Idiots and Lunatics- 
17,000 Deaf and Dumb, and 15,000 hunch-backs, and about an 
equal proportion of thefe mental and phyfical deformities in the 
other civilized nations of the Earth! 
Nature makes nothing without defign;' and who dares to fay 
that file has defigned thefe lifts of pitiable exiftence amongft the 
civilized Races of Man, and that the more perfed: work of her 
3 34 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
hand has been bellowed upon the Savage (and even the Brute) 
creations ? And next to Nature, our dear Mothers, under whofe 
kind care and tender handling we have been railed, could fub- 
jed us to no accident to turn the brain or crook the fpine ; but 
ealily and thoughtlefsly might, even in their over anxiety for our 
health, fubjed us to early treatment, engendering habits which 
would gradually and imperceptibly produce the whole of thefe 
calamities; which I believe have never, as yet, been traced to a 
more probable caufe than the habitual abufe of the lungs, in the 
manner which has been defcribed. 
The teeth of Man, as with the Brutes, are wifely conftruded 
to anfwer their intended purpofes through the natural term of 
life, and would fo, no doubt, but from abufes, the principal one 
of which I conlider to be the pernicious habit already explained. 
The faliva exuding from the gums, deligned as the Element of 
the teeth, floods every part of .the mouth while it is (hut; con- 
tinually riling, like a pure fountain, from the gums, at the roots 
of and between the teeth; loofening and carrying off the 
extraneous matter which would otherwife accumulate, commu- 
nicating difeafe to the teeth, and taint to the breath. 
By nature, the teeth and the eyes are ftridly amphibious ; both 
immerfed in liquids which are prepared for their nourifhment 
and protedion, and with powers of exifling in the open air long 
enough for the various purpofes for which they were deligned ; 
but beyond that, abufe begins, and they foon turn to decay. It 
is the fuppreflion of faliva, with drynefs of the mouth, and an 
unnatural current of cold air acrofs the teeth and gums during 
the hours of fleep, that produces malformation of the teeth, 
toothache, and tic-douloureux, with premature decay, and lofs of 
teeth fo lamentably prevalent in the civilized world. THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
3; 
Amongft the Brute creations, that never open their mouths 
except for taking their food and drink, their teeth are proteded 
from the air both day and night, and feldom decay; but with 
Man, who is a talking and laughing animal, expofing his teeth to 
the air a great portion of the day, and oftentimes during the 
whole of the night, the refults are widely different-he is often- 
times toothlefs at middle age, and in feven cafes in ten, in his 
grave before he is fifty. 
If civilized man, with his ufual derangements and abfence 
of teeth, had been compelled to crop the grafs, like the ox and 
the horfe, as the means of his living, and knew not the glorious 
ufe of the to what a mifery would he have been doomed, 
and how long could he exift ? the lofs of a tooth or two with 
thofe animals would refult in their death; and how wife, and 
how provident therefore, the defigns of the Creator, who has 
provided them with the unfailing means of fupporting their 
exigence, and alfo the inftindive habits intended for the protection 
of thofe means. 
Amongft the Native Races they feem to have a knowledge 
of thefe fads; and the poor Indian woman who watches her 
infant and preffes its lips together as it fleeps in its cradle 
attrads the ridicule perhaps, or pity, of the paffer-by, but 
fecures the habit in her progeny which enables them to com- 
mand the admiration and envy of the world. 
Thefe people, who talk little and fleep naturally, have no 
Dentifts nor dentifrice, nor do they require either; their teeth 
almoft invariably rife from the gums and arrange themfelves as 
regular as the keys of a piano; and without decay or aches, 
preferve their foundnefs and enamel, and powers of maftication, 
to old age : and there are no fufficient reafons affigned yet, why 36 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
the fame refults, or nearly fuch, may not be produced amongft 
the more enlightened Races, by fimilar means. 
Civilized man may properly be faid to be an open mouthed 
animal; a wild man is not. An Indian Warrior fleeps, and 
hunts, and fmiles, with his mouth (hut; and with Teeming 
reludance, opens it even to eat or to fpeak. An Indian child 
is not allowed to deep with its mouth open, from the very firft 
deep of its exiftence; the confequence of which is, that while 
the teeth are forming and making their firft appearance, they 
meet (and conftantly feel} each other; and taking their relative, 
natural petitions, form that healthful and pleating regularity 
which has fecured to the American Indians, as a Race, perhaps 
the moll manly and beautiful mouths in the World.* 
* When I fpeak of comparative perfonal appearance or of the habits of a 
people, I fpeak of them colleftively, and in the aggregate. I often fee mouths and 
other phyfical conformations amongft the civilized portions of mankind equally 
beautiful as can be feen amongft the Savage Races, but by no means fo often. 
Symmetry of form, gracefulnefs of movement, and other conftituents of manly 
beauty are much more general amongft the Savage Races; and their Societies, free 
from the humbled and dependent mifery which comparative poverty produces in 
Civilized Communities, produce none of thofe ftriking contrafts which ftare us in 
the face, and excite our difguft and our fympathies, at nearly every ftep we take. 
The American Savages are all poor, their higheft want is that of food, which is 
generally within their reach ; their faces are therefore not wrinkled and furrowed 
with the ftamp of care and diftrefs, which extreme poverty begets-the repulfive 
marks which avarice engraves, nor with the loathfome and difgufting expreffions 
which the prodigal diflipations of Wealth often engender in Civilized Societies. 
Their taftes and their paffions are lefs refined and lefs ardent, and more feldom 
exerted, and confequently lefs abufed; they live on the fimples of life, and imagine 
and defire only in proportion; the confequences of which are, that their faces 
exhibit {lighter inroads upon Nature, and confequently a greater average of good 
looks than an equal community of any civilized people. THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
37 
Nature makes no derangements or deformities in teeth or 
mouths; but habits or accidents produce the difagreeable 
derangements of the one, and confequently the difgufting 
expreffions of the other, which are fo often feen. 
With the brute creations, where there is lefs chance for 
habits or accidents to make derangements, we fee the beautiful 
fyftem of the regularity of the works of Nature's hand, and in 
their foundnefs and durability, the completenefs of her works, 
which we have no juft caufe to believe has been ftinted in the 
phyfical conftrudion of man. 
The contraft between the two Societies, of Savage and of 
Civil, as regards the perfedion and duration of their teeth, is 
quite equal to that of their Bills of Mortality, already fliown; 
and I contend that in both cafes, the principal caufe of the 
difference is exadly the fame, that of refpiration through the 
mouth, during the hours of fleep. 
Under the lefs cruel, and apparently more tender and affec- 
tionate treatment, of many civilized mothers, their infants fleep 
in their arms, in their heated exhalation, or in cradles, in over- 
heated rooms, with their faces covered, without the allowance 
of a breath of vital air; where, as has been faid, they from 
neceffity gafp for breath until it becomes a habit of their infancy 
and childhood, to fleep with their mouths wide open, which 
their tender mothers overlook, or are not cruel enough to cor- 
red ; little thinking of the fad afflidion which the croup, or later 
difeafes are to bring into their houfe. 
There is nothing more natural than a mother's near and fond 
embrace of her infant in her hours of fleep; and nothing more 
dangerous to its health, and even to its exiftence. The tender 
fympathies of love and inftind draw her arms clofer around it, 38 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
and her lips nearer, as file finks into fleep and compels it to 
breathe the exhauded and poifbned air that file exhales from 
her own lungs; little thinking how much fhe is doing to break 
her heart in future days. Nothing is fweeter or more hatmlefs 
to a mother than to inhale the feeble breath of her innocent; 
but fhe fhould be reminded that whild fhe is drawing thefe deli- 
cious draughts, file may be returning for them, pedilence and 
death. 
All mothers know the painful, and even dangerous crifis 
which their infants pafs in teething; and how naturally do their 
bofoms yearn for the fufferings of thefe little creatures whofe 
Earthly careers are often flopped by that event. (3,660 per 
annum in England alone, under one year of age, as has been 
fliown.) 
Amongd the Savage Races, we have feen that death feldom, 
if ever, enfues from this caufe; and how eafy it is to perceive 
that unnatural pains, and even death, may be caufed by the 
habit of infants fleeping with their mouths drained open, and 
expofed to the cold air, when the germs of the teeth are firll 
making their appearance. 
The Statidics of England fliow an annual return of " 25,000 
infants, and children under five years of age, that die of coirvul- 
Jions." What caufes fo probable for thofe convuhions as teeth- 
ing and the croup ; and what more probable caufe for the unna- 
tural pains of teething and the croup, than the infernal habit 
which I am condemning. 
At this tender age, and under the kind treatment juft men- 
tioned, is thoughtleflly laid the foundation for the rich harvells 
which the Dentifts are reaping in mod parts of the civilized 
world. The infant paffes two-thirds of its time in fleep, with THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
39 
its mouth open, while the teeth are prefenting themfelves in 
their tender date, to be chilled and dried in the currents of air 
palTing over them, inftead of being nurtured by the warmth and 
faliva intended for their protedion, when they projed to unnatural 
and unequal lengths, or take different and unnatural diredions, 
producing thofe difagreeable and unfortunate combinations, 
which are frequently feen in civilized adult focieties, and often- 
times fadly disfiguring the human face for life. 
While there are a great many perfons in all civilized focie- 
ties who adhere to the defigns of Nature in the habits above 
referred to, how great a proportion of the individuals of thofe 
focieties carry on their faces the proofs of a different habit, 
brought from their childhood, which their Confiitutions have fo 
far fuccefsfully battled againft, until (as has been faid) it becomes 
like a fecond Nature, and a matter of neccffity, even during 
their waking hours and the ufual avocations of life, to breathe 
through the mouth, which is conftantly open; while the 
nafal duds, being vacated, like vacated roads that grow up 40 
THE BREATH OF LIFE, 
to grafs and weeds, become the feat of Polypus and other 
difeafes. 
In all of thefe inftances there is a derangement and defor- 
mity of the teeth, and disfigurement of the mouth, and the whole 
face, which are not natural; carrying the proof of a long pradice 
of the baneful habit, with its lafting confequences; and produc- 
ing that unfortunate and pitiable, and oftentimes difgufting 
expreflion, which none but civilized communities can prefent. 
Even the Brute creations furnifli nothing fo abominable as 
thefe ; which juftly demand our rympathy inftead of our derifion. 
The faces and the mouths of the Wolf, the Tiger, and even 
the Hyena and the Donkey, are agreeable, and even handfome, 
by the fide of them. 
What Phyfician will fay that the inhalation of cold air to 
the lungs through fuch mouths as thefe, and over the putrid 
fecretions and rotten teeth within, may not occafion difeafe of 
the lungs and death ? Infeded diftrids communicate difeafe-* THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
41 
infedion attaches to putrefcence, and no other infected didrid 
can be fo near to the lungs as an infeded mouth. 
Mod habits againd Nature, if not arreded, run into difeafe. 
The habit which has thus far been treated as a habit, merely, 
with its evil confequences, will here be feen to be worthy of a 
name, and of being ranked amongd the fpecific difeafes of man- 
kind ; Indulged and pradifed until the mouth is permanently 
didorted from its natural fliape, and in the infedious date above 
named, ading the unnatural hand-maid to the lungs, it gains the 
locality and fpeciality of charader which charaderize difeafes, 
and therefore would properly rank amongd them. No name 
feems as yet to have been applied to this malady, and no one 
apparently more expreflive, at prefent fuggeds, than Malo inferno, 
which (though perhaps not exadly Claflic) I would denominate 
it, and define it to be dridly a human difeafe, confined chiefly to 
the Civilized Races of Man, an unnatural and pitiable disfigure- 
ment of the " human face divine," unknown to the Brutes, and 
unallowed by the Savage Races, caufcd by the carelefs permiflion 
of a habit contraded in infancy or childhood, and fubmitted to, 
humbly, through life, under the miftaken belief that it is by an 
unfortunate order of Nature-its Remedy (in negled of the fpeci- 
fics to be propofed in the following pages) the grave (generally) 
between infancy and the age of forty. 
The American Indians call the civilized Races "pale faces" 
and " black mouths" and to underhand the full force of thefe 
expreflions, it is neceflary to live awhile amongd the Savage 
Races, and then to return to civilized life. The Author has had 
ample opportunities of teding the judnefs of thefe expreflions, 
and has been forcibly druck with the corrednefs of their appli- 
cation, on returning from Savage to Civilized Society. A long 42 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
familiarity with red faces and clofed mouths affords a new view 
of our friends when we get back, and fully explains to us the 
horror which a favage has of a " pale-face," and his difguft with 
the expreffion of open and black mouths* 
No man or woman with a handfome fet of teeth keeps the 
mouth habitually open; and every perfon with an unnatural 
derangement of the teeth is as lure feldom to have it (hut. 
This is not becaufe the derangement of the teeth has made the 
habit, but becaufe the habit has caufed the derangement of the 
teeth. 
If it were for the fake of the teeth alone, and man's per- 
fonal appearance, the habit I am condemning would be one 
well worth rtruggling againft; but when we can fo eafily, and 
with fo much certainty difcover its deftruftive effefts upon the 
confiitution and life of man, it becomes a fubjeft of a different 
importance, and well worthy of being underftood by every 
member of fociety, who themlelves, and not phyficians, are to 
arreft its deadly effefts. 
The Brute, at its birth, rifes on its feet, breathes the open 
air, and feeks and obtains its food at the next moment. 
* Of the party of 14 loway Indians, who vifited London fome years lince, 
there was one whofe name was Wafh-ke-mon-ye (the faft dancer) ; he was a great 
droll, and fomewhat of a critic ; and had picked up enough of Englifh to enable 
him to make a few Ample fentences and to draw amufing comparifons. I afked 
him one day, how he liked the White people, after the experience he had now 
had ; to which he replied-" Well, White man-fuppofe-mouth fhut, putty coot, 
mouth open, no coot-me no like um, not much." This reply created a fmile 
amongft the party, and the chief informed me that one of the moft ftriking pecu- 
liarities which all Indian Tribes difcovered amongft the white people, was the 
derangement and abfence of their teeth, and which they believed were deflroyed 
by the number of lies that pafled over them. THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
43 
The Chicken breaks its own fhell and walks out on two legs, 
and without a gaze of wonder upon the world around, begins 
feleding and picking up its own food ! 
Man, at his birth, is a more helplefs animal, and his mental, 
as well as his phyfical faculties, requiring a much longer time 
to mature, are fubjed to greater dangers of mifdiredion from 
pernicious habits, which it fliould be the firft objed of parents 
to guard againft. 
The Savage Tribes of America allow no obftacles to the 
progrefs of Nature in the development of their teeth and their 
lungs for the purpofes of life, and confequently fecuring their 
exemption from many of the pangs and pains which the civil- 
ized Races feem to be heirs to; who undoubtedly too often 
the intellect, while they the Man. 
The human infant, like the infant brute, is able to breathe 
the natural air at its birth, both afleep and awake; but that 
breathing fliould be done as Nature defigned it, through the 
noftrils, inftead of through the mouth. 
The Savage Mother, inftead of embracing her infant in her 
fleeping hours, in the heated exhalation of her body, places it 
at her arm's length from her, and compels it to breathe the frefh 
air, the coldnefs of which generally prompts it to fhut the 
mouth, in default of which, she preffes its lips together in the 
manner that has been ftated, until file fixes the habit which is 
to laft it through life ; and the contraft to this, which is too 
often pradifed by mothers in the civilized world, in the miftaken 
belief that warmth is the efiential thing for their darling babes, 
I believe to be the innocent foundation of the principal, and as 
yet unexplained caufe of the deadly difeafes fo frightfully 
fwelling the Bills of Mortality in civilized communities. 44 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
All Savage infants amongft the various native Tribes of 
America, are reared in cribs (or cradles) with the back laflied 
to a ftraight board; and by the aid of a circular, concave 
cufhion placed under the head, the head is bowed a little for- 
ward when they deep, which prevents the mouth from falling 
open; thus eftablifliing the early habit of breathing through 
the noftrils. The refults of this habit are, that Indian adults 
invariably walk ereft and ftraight, have healthy fpines, and fleep 
upon their backs, with their Robes wrapped around them ; with 
the head Supported by home reft, which inclines it a little for- 
ward, or upon their faces, with the forehead retting on the arms THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
45 
which are folded underneath it, in both of which cafes there is 
a tendency to the doling of the mouth ; and their deep is 
therefore always unattended with the nightmare or fnoring. 
Lying on the back is thought by many to be an unhealthy 
practice ; and a long habit of deeping in a different pofition 
may even make it fo; but the general cultom of the Savage 
races, of fleeping in this pofition from infancy to old age, affords 
very conclufive proof, that if commenced in early life, it is the 
healthieft for a general pofture, that can be adopted. 
It is very evident that the back of the head fhould never 
be allowed, in deep, to fall to a level with the fpine ; but 
fliould be fupported by a fmall pillow, to elevate it a little, with- 
out railing the dioulders or bending the back, which fliould 
always be kept ftraight. 
The Savages with their pillows, like the birds in the build- 
ing of their nefls, make no improvements during the lapfe of 
ages, and feem to care little if they are blocks of wood or of 
ftone, provided they elevate the head to the required pofition. 
With the civilized Races, where everything is progreflive, 
and luxuries efpecially fo, pillows have increafed in longitudinal 
dimenfions until they too often form a fupport for the flioulders 46 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
as well as the head, thereby annulling the objeft for which they 
were originally intended, and for which, alone, they fliould be 
ufed. 
All animals lower the head in fleep; and mankind, with a 
fmall fupport under it, inclining it a little forward, affume for 
it a fimilar petition. 
This elderly and excellent Gentleman, from a long (and 
therefore neceffary) habit, takes his nap after dinner, in the 
attitude which he is contented to believe is the moft luxurious 
that can be devifed; whilft any one can difcover that he is very 
far from the adual enjoyment which he might feel, and the more 
agreeablenefs of afpeft which he might prefent to his furround- 
ing friends, if his invention had carried him a little farther, and 
fuggefted the introduction of a fmall cufhion behind his head, 
advancing it a little forward, above the level of his fpine. The 
gaftric juices commence their work upon the frefli contents of 
a ilomach, on the arrival of a good dinner, with a much {lighter THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
47 
jar upon the digeftive and nervous fyftems, when the foothing 
and deledable compound is not fhocked by the. unwelcome 
inhalations of chilling atmofphere. 
And this tender and affedionate Mother, blefing herfelf and 
her flock of little ones with the pleafures of fee-p 1 how much 
might (lie increafe her own enjoyment with her pillow under 
her head, inftead of having it under her Jhoulders; and that of 
her little gafping innocents, if flie had placed them in cribs, and 
with pillows under their heads, from which they could not efcape. 
The contraft between the expreflions of thefe two groups 48 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
will be ftriking to all; and every mother may find a lefibn in 
them worth her ftudying; either for improvements in her own 
Nurfery, or for teaching thofe who may ftand more in need of 
Nurfery Reform than herfelf. 
So far back as the ftarting point in life, I believe man feldom 
looks for the caufes of the pangs and pains which befet and 
torture him in advanced life ; but. in which, far back as it may 
be, they may have had their origin. 
Little does he think that his aching, deformed, and decay- 
ing teeth were tortured out of their natural arrangement and 
health, in the days of their formation, by the cold draughts of 
air acrofs them; or that the confumption of his decaying lungs 
has been caufed by the fame habit; and that habit was the 
refult of the adual tendernefs, but overfight, of his affedionate 
Mother, when he flcpt in her arms, or in the cradle. 
The foregoing are general remarks which I have been 
enabled to make, from long and careful obfervation ; and 
there are others perhaps, equally or more demonftrative of the 
danger of the habit alluded to, as well as of the power we have 
of averting it, and of arrefting its baneful effeds, even in middle 
age, or the latter part of man's life, which will be found in the 
relation of my own experience. 
At the age of 34 years, (after devoting myfelf to the dry 
and tedious ftudy of the Law for 3 years, and to the pradice of 
it for 3 years more, and after that to the ftill more fatiguing and 
confining pradice of Miniature and portrait painting, for 8 
years,) I penetrated the vafi wildernefs with my canvafs and 
bruflies, for the purpofe which has already been explained; and 
in the profecution of which defign, I have devoted molt of the 
fubfequent part of my life. THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
49 
At that period I was exceedingly feeble, which I attributed 
to the sedentary habits of my occupation, but which many 
of my friends and my Phyfician believed to be the refult of 
difeafe of the lungs.. I had, however, no apprehenfions that 
dampened in the lead, the ardour and confidence with which 
I entered upon my new ambition, which I purfued with 
enthufiafm and unalloyed fatisfadion until my refearches 
brought me into folitudes fo remote that beds, and bed cham- 
bers with fixed air, became matters of impoffibility, and I 
was brought to the abfolute neceflity of fleeping in canoes 
or hammocks, or upon the banks of the .Rivers, between a 
couple of Buffalo fkins, fpread upon the grafs, and breathing 
the chilly air of dewy and foggy nights, that was circulating 
around me. 
Then commenced a ftruggle of no ordinary kind, between 
the fixed determination I had made, to accomplifli my new 
ambition, and the daily and hourly pains I was buffering, and 
the difcouraging weaknefs daily increafing on me, and threaten- 
ing my ultimate defeat. 
I had been, like too many of the world, too tenderly 
careffed in my infancy and childhood, by the over kindnefs of 
an affedionate Mother, without cruelty or thoughtfulnefs enough 
to compel me to clofe my mouth in my fleeping hours; and 
who, through my boyhood, thinking that while I was afleep I 
was doing well enough, allowed me to grow up under that 
abominable cuftom of fleeping, much of the time, with the 
mouth wide open; and which pradice I thoughtlefily carried 
into manhood, with Nightmare and fnoring, and its other 
refults; and at laft, (as I difcovered juft in time to fave my 
life,) to the banks of the Miffouri, where I was nightly drawing 
4 5° 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
the deadly draughts of cold air, with all its poifonous malaria, 
through my mouth into my lungs. 
Waking many times during the night, and finding myfelf 
in this painful condition, and fuffering during the fucceeding 
day with pain and inflammation (and fometimes bleeding) ot 
the lungs, I became fully convinced of the danger of the habit, 
and refolved to overcome it, which I eventually did, only by 
fternnefs of refolution and perfeverance, determining through 
the day, to keep my teeth and my lips firmly clofed, except 
when it was neceffary to open them; and ftrengthening this 
determination, as a matter of life or death, at the laft moment of 
confcioufnefs, while entering into fleep. 
Under this unyielding determination, and the evident relief 
I began to feel from a partial correflion of the habit, I was 
encouraged to continue in the unrelaxed application of my 
remedy, until I at length completely conquered an infidious 
enemy that was nightly attacking me in my helplefs pofition, 
and evidently fall hurrying me to the grave. 
Convinced of the danger I had averted by my own perfe- 
verance, and gaining ftrength for the continuance of my daily 
fatigues, I renewed my determinations to enjoy my natural 
refpiration during my hours of fleep, which I afterwards did, 
without difficulty, in all latitudes, in the open air, during my 
fubfequent years of expofure in the wildernefs; and have fince 
done fo to the prefent time of my life; when I find myfelf 
ftronger, and freer from aches and pains than I was from my 
boyhood to middle age, and in all refpefls enjoying better health 
than I did during that period. 
I mention thefe fads for the benefit of my fellow beings, of 
whom there are tens (and hundreds) of thoufands fuffering THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
51 
from day to day from the ravages of this infidious enemy that 
preys upon their lungs in their unconfcious moments, who 
know not the caufe of their fufferings, and find not the Phyfi- 
cian who can cure them. 
Finding myfelf fo evidently relieved from the painful and 
alarming refults of a habit which I recolleded to have been 
brought from my boyhood, I became forcibly ftruck with the 
cuftom I had often obferved (and to which 1 have before 
alluded) of the Indian women prefling together the lips of their 
fleeping infants, for which I could not, at firft, imagine the 
motive, but which was now fuggefted to me in a manner which 
I could not mifunderftand; and appealing to them for the objeft 
of fo, apparently, cruel a mode, I was foon made to underftand, 
both by their women and their Medicine Men, that it was done 
"to enfure their good looks, and prolong their lives;" and by 
looking into their communities, and contrafting their fanitary 
condition with the Bills of Mortality amongft the civilized 
Races, I am ready to admit the juftnefs of their reply; and am 
fully convinced of the advantages thofe ignorant Races have 
over us in this refped, not from being ahead of us, but from 
being behind us, and confequently not fo far departed from 
Nature's wife and provident regulations, as to lofe the benefit 
of them. 
From the whole amount of obfervations I have made 
amongft the two clades of fociety, added to my own experience, 
as explained in the foregoing pages, I am compelled to believe, 
and feel authorifed to affert, that a great proportion of the dii- 
eafes prematurely fatal to human life, as well as mental and 
phyfical deformities, and deftruftion of the teeth, are caufed by 
the abufe of the lungs, in the Mal-refpiration of Sleep : and 52 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
alfo, that the pernicious habit, though contraded in infancy or 
childhood, or manhood, may generally be corrected by a Heady 
and determined perfeverance, bafed upon a conviction of its 
baneful and fatal refults. 
The great error is molt frequently committed, and there is 
the proper place to corred or prevent it, at the Jiarting .point-■ 
when the germs are tender, and taking their firft impreffions, 
which are to laft them through life. It is then too, that the 
fondeft and tendered fympathies belonging to the human bread 
are watching over them; and it is only neceffary for thofe kind 
guardians to be made aware of the danger of thoughtlefs 
habits which their over-indulgence may allow their offspring to 
fall into. 
It is to Mothers, and truly not to Phyficians or Medicines, 
that the world are to look, for the remedy of this evil; and the 
phyfical improvements of mankind, and the prolongation of 
human exigence, effeded by it. 
Children, I have faid, are not born Hunch-backs, but a habit 
of fleeping thus, in the varying temperatures of the night, 
might make them inch. Infants are not born Idiots or Lunatics, THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
53 
but a habit of fleeping thus, in fudden changes of weather, 
would tend to make them fo, and in the countries where infants 
ileep thus, the above deformities fcarcely exid; while in Eng- 
land, as has been fliown, there are 20,000 of the firft of thefe, 
and 35,000 of the latter. How fignificant and important the 
dedudions from thefe fimple fads-if they be fads-and who 
will contradid them 2 
If Phyficians and Surgeons gain fame for occafionally con- 
quering the enemy in combat; what laurels, and what new fitle, 
fhould await the fair Jd)iplomatifts who will keep the enemy out of 
the field-the affedionate mothers., who, like the Indian woman, 
will fit by their deeping infants, and watch and guard them 
through their childhood, againft the departure from one of 
Nature's moft wife and important regulations, defigned for their 
health and happinefs. 
If the great majority of this fort of evil has its origin in 
that early period of life, its correftion comes diredly under the 
Mother's province ; and there certainly can be no better gua- 54 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
rantee for the benefit of coming generations, than that mothers 
fliould be made fully fenfible of the evil, and of their own 
power to avert it. And to Mothers, I would in the firft place, 
say, for the fakes of your infants unborn, and for your own 
lives' sake, draw the curtain, (not of your bed, but of your 
lungs) when you retire to reft; availing yourfelves and your 
offspring of the full benefit of the peaceful and invigorating 
repofe which Nature has prepared for you, to enable you to 
meet with fuccefs the events to which you are approaching; 
and when Nature has placed in your arms for your kind care, 
the darling objeds of your tendered: affedions, not to forget that 
file has prepared and defigned them to breathe the open air; 
and that when they fleep in your embrace in heated rooms and 
feather beds, they deep in a double or treble heat, the thought- 
lefs confequences of which will be likely to break your hearts 
in future life. Reft aflured that the great fecret of life is the 
breathing principle, for which Nature has rightly prepared the 
material, and the proper mode of ufing it; and at the incipient ftage 
of life where Mothers are the Phyficians, is the eafieft place to 
contrad habits againft Nature, or to corred them; and that there 
is woman's poft, her appropriate fphere ; where file takes to her- 
felf the fweeteft pleafures of her exiftence, and draws the higheft 
admiration of the World, whilft, like a guardian Angel, file is 
watching over, and giving diredion to, the Deftinies of Man. 
fo Children-to Boys and Girls, who have grown up to the 
age of difcretion, and are able to read, the above information 
and advice are doubly important, becaufe you have long lives 
of enjoyment or mifery before you ; and which, you now being 
out of your Mother's immediate care, are to be controlled by THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
your own adions. And that you may not undervalue the 
advice which I am about to advance diredly to you, I may 
(as the Clergyman repeats his text in his Sermon, or a fond 
parent, the important points of his advice to his fon) repeat fome 
things that I have faid, while I am giving you further evidence 
of the importance of the fubjed I am now explaining to you. 
I advife you to bear in mind the awful Bills of Mortality 
amongft civilized focieties, which I have quoted; and realize 
the dangerous race which civilized man runs in life-how very 
few live to the age defigned by Nature-how many perifh in 
infancy, long before they are of your age ; and confequently 
the dangers which you have already paffed, and contraft all of 
thefe with thofe of the Wild Indians, who by Nature, are no 
ftronger than we are, but who generally live to good old age, 
with comparatively, few bodily pains in life, and their teeth 
almoft uniformly regular and found, without the aid of Dentifts 
and tooth-brfhues. 
Have you obferved by thofe Bills of Mortality, that you 
are but one out of two or three of your little companions who 
darted and commenced playing along with you, permitted to 
live to boyhood; and alfo that you have but one chance in 
four, or thereabouts, of living to tolerable old age ? 
Can you read thofe lamentable eftimates, which are matters 
of fad, and draw fuch fearful conclufions from them as to your 
own condition and profpeds, without realizing the importance 
of the fubjed ? and can you compare thofe difafters amongft 
the civilized, with thofe of the Savage Races, which I have 
explained, without believing there is fome caufe for all this, that 
is unnatural, and which may be, to a great degree, correded, if 
we make the proper effort?  
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
You have read in the foregoing pages, that man's life 
depends from one moment to another on the air which he 
breathes, and alfo that the atmofphere is nowhere pure enough 
for the healthy ufe of the lungs until it has pafled the purifying 
procefs which Nature has prepared in the noftrils, and which 
has been explained. Air is an Elementary principle, created by 
the hand of God, who, as has been faid, creates nothing but 
perfedions; and confequently is nowhere impure, except from 
the caufes which I have already explained; and in the infinity 
of His wifdom and goodnefs, thole accidental impurities were 
forefeen and provided for (even with the brutes, as well as with 
Mankind), by the myfterious organizations through which the 
breath of life firft came to man. 
The various occupations of men, and for which you are by 
this time preparing, fubjeft them more or lefs to the dangerous 
effeds of the malaria and poifonous particles in the air, in pro- 
portion to the nature of their employments, and the diftrids and 
atmofpheres in which they exift and work. 
The Mechanical trades are the moft fubjed to thefe, from 
which the farmer and the Gentleman are more exempt; the 
Carpenter, therefore, amidft the duft of his fhop, fhould work 
with his mouth (hut, and take care not to Heep upon his bench 
during his mid-day reft. The Cutlery grinder fhould not work 
with his mouth open amidft the particles of fteel which his feet 
raife from the floor, and the motion of his wheel keeps in cir- 
culation in the air. 
So with the Stone-cutter (and particularly thofe working in 
the hardeft fort of ftones and flint) the fame precautions are 
neceflary; as by the extraordinary proportion of deaths Re- 
ported amongft thofe clafles of workmen, the poifonous effeds THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
51 
of their bufinefs are clearly proved, as well as by the accumu- 
lated particles of Heel and filex found imbedded in their lungs 
and coating the Refpiratory organs; and which, to have caufed 
premature death, muft have been inhaled through the mouth. 
Phyficians are conftantly informing the world, in their Reports, 
of the fatal refults of thefe poifonous things inhaled into the 
lungs; but why do they not fay at the fame time, that there are 
two modes of inhalation,>by the nofe and by the mouth; and 
inform the Mechanics and labourers of the World who are 
thus rifking their lives, that there is fafety to life in one way, 
and great danger in the other ? If Phyficians forget to give 
you this advice, thefe fuggeftions, with your own difcretion, 
may be of fervice to you. 
The Savages have the advantage of moving about, and 
fleeping in the open air; and Civilized Races have the advan- 
tages over the poor Indians, of comfortable houfes and beds, 
and bed-rooms; and alfo of the moft fkilful Phyficians, and 
Surgeons, and Dentifts; and ftill we are ftruck with the deplor- 
able refults in our fociety, of fome latent caufe of difeafes, 
which I believe has been too much overlooked and negleded. 
Have you not many times waked in the middle of the 
night, in great diftrefs, with your mouths wide open, and fo 
cold and dry that it took you a long time to moiften and fliut 
them again1? and did it occur to you at thofe moments that 
this was all the refult of a carelefs habit, by which you were 
drawing an unnatural draught of cold air in every breath, 
di redly on the lungs, inftead of drawing it through the noftrils, 
which Nature has made for that efpecial purpofe, giving it 
warmth, and meafuring its quantity, fuitable to the demands of 
repofe ? 58 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
Watch your little Brothers and Sifters, or other little inno- 
cent playfellows, when afleep with their mouths drained open, 
and obferve the painful expreflions of their faces-their ner- 
vous agitation-the unnatural beating of their hearts-the 
twitching of their flefh, and the cords of their necks and throats; 
and your own reafon will tell you that they do not enjoy fuch 
deep. And on the other hand, what pidures of innocence and 
enjoyment are thofe 'who are quietly deeping with their mouths 
firmly fliut, and their teeth clofed, finding as they are enjoying 
their natural repofe ? If you will for a few moments fliut 
your eyes, and let your under jaw fall down, as it fometimes 
does in your deep, you will foon fee how painful the over THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
59 
draught of cold air on the lungs becomes, even in the day-time, 
when all your energies are in aftion to relieve you; and you 
will inftantly perceive the mifchief that fuch a mode of breath- 
ing might do in the night, when every mufcle and nerve in 
your body is relaxed and feeking repofe, and the chill of the 
midnight air is increaling. 
It is, moft undoubtedly, the above named habit which pro- 
duces confirmed Snorers, and alfo confumption of the lungs and 
many other difeafes, as well as premature decay of the teeth- 
the Nightmare, &c., from which it has been fhown, the Savage 
Races are chiefly exempt; and (I firmly believe) from the fad 
that they always fleep with their mouths clofed, and their teeth 
together, as I have before defcribed. 
There are many of you who read, to whom this advice will 
not be neceflary, while many others of your little companions 
will attrad your fympathy when you fee them afleep, with their 
mouths ftrained open, and their fenfations anything but thofe 
of joy and reft. Their teeth are growing during thofe hours, 
and will grow of unequal lengths, and in unnatural directions, 
and oftentimes difabling them in after life, from (hutting their bo 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
mouths, even in their waking hours, and moft lamentably dis- 
figuring their faces for the remainder of their days. 
It is then, my young Readers, for you to evade thefe evils, 
to fave your own lives and your good looks, by your own efforts, 
which I believe the moft of you can do, without the aid of Phyfi- 
cians or Dentifts, who are always the ready and bold antagonifts 
of difeafe, but never called until the enemy has made the attack. 
I imagine you now juft entering upon the ftage of life, 
where you are to come under the gaze of the world, and to 
make thofe impreflions, and form thofe connexions in fociety 
which are to attend you, and to benefit or to injure you through 
life. You are juft at that period of your exiftence when the 
proverb begins to apply, that " man's life is in his own hands 
and if this be not always true, it is quite true, that much of his 
good looks, his daily enjoyments, and the control of his habits, 
are within the reach of his attainment. Thefe are all advantages 
worth ftriving for, and if you fternly perfevere for their accom- 
plifliment, you will perfedly verify in your own cafes, the other and 
truer adage, that "at middle age, man is his own beft Phyfician." 
I recoiled, and never fhall forget while I live, that in my 
boyhood, I fell in love with a charming little girl, merely becaufe 
her pretty mouth was always fliut; her words, which were few, 
and always (I thought) fo fitly fpoken, feemed to iffue from 
the centre of her cherry lips, whilft the corners of her mouth 
feemed (to me,) to be honeyed together. No excitements 
could bring more than a fweet fmile on her lips, which feemed 
to hold confident guard over the white and pretty treafures they 
enclofed, and which were permitted but occafionally, to be feen 
peeping out. 
Of fuch a mouth it was eafy to imagine, even without feeing THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
61 
them, the beautiful embellifliments that were within, as well as 
the fweet and innocent expreffion of its repofe, during the 
hours of fleep; and from fuch impreffions, I recoiled it was 
exceedingly difficult and painful to wean my boyifh affedions. 
To young people, who have the world before them to choofe 
in, and to be chofen; next to the importance of life itfelf, and 
their Future welfare, are the habits which are to disfigure and 
impair, or to beautify and proted that feature which, with man 
and with woman, alike, is the moft expreffive and attradive of 
the face ; and at the fame time, the moft fubjed to the influence 
of pleafing, or difagreeable, or difgufting habits. 
Good looks and other perfonal attradions are defirable, and 
licenfed to all; and much more generally attainable than the 
world fuppofe, who take the various features and expreffions 
which they fee in the multitude, as the works of Nature's 
hand. 
The natural mouth of man is always an expreffive and 
agreeable feature; but the departures from it, which are caufed 
by the predominance of different paffions or taftes, or by the 
perfedly infipid and difgufting habit which has been explained, 
are anything but agreeable, and but little in harmony with the 
advance of his intelled. 
Open mouths during the night are fure to produce open 
mouths during the day; the teeth protrude, if the habit be com- 
menced in infancy, fo that the mouth can't be (hut, the natural 
expreffion is loft, the voice is affeded, polypus takes poffeffion 
of the nofe, the teeth decay, tainted breath enfues, and the 
lungs are deftroyed. The whole features of the face are changed, 
the under jaw, unhinged, falls and retires, the cheeks are hol- 
lowed, and the cheek-bones and the upper jaw advance, and the 62 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
brow and the upper eyelids are unnaturally lifted; prefenting at 
once, the leading features and expreffion of Idiocy. 
Thefe are changes in the contour and expreffion of the face 
which any one can fufficiently illuftrate, with a little effort, on his 
own face before a looking-glafs; and that thefe refults are often 
fixed and permanently retained in fociety, every fane perfon is 
able to difcover; and I believe molt perfons will agree with me, 
that they are the unfortunate refults of the habit I am denouncing. 
Nature 
changed by habit. THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
63 
All the World judge of men's difpofitions and charader by 
the expreffions of their face; and how difaftrous may it there- 
fore be for men to indulge an expreffion of face in their fleep 
which they would be afliamed of in their waking hours ? The 
world is full of fuch, however, and fuch a man afleep, and a 
deeping Idiot, are exaftly the fame. 
How appalling the thought, and dangerous the habit! and 
what are likely to be the refults fhown in the fixed and lafting 
expreffions of the face 2 
Thefe remarks, and thefe queffions are intended for Boys 
and Young Men, for I can fcarcely allow myfelf to believe that 
Young Ladies would be caught fleeping thus; but one word of 
advice, even to them, may not be amifs-Idiots afleep cannot be. 
Angels awake. 
The natural mouths of mankind, like thofe of the brutes, 
have a general fyftematic form and expreffion; but the various 
habits and accidents of life give them a vaft variety of expres- 
fions; and the greater portion of thofe deviations from Nature, 
are caufed by the malformation of the teeth, or by the falling 64 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
of the under jaw, which alone, in its intended pofition, forms the 
natural mouth. When formed in this way, and unchanged by 
habit or accident, the mouth is always well-fhaped and agreeable ; 
but if the teeth become deranged in the manner I have 
defcribed, the mouth becomes deformed; and in endeavouring 
to hide that deformity, oftentimes more difagreeable and unna- 
tural than when that deformity is expofed. 
I knew a young Lady many years ago, amiable and intelli- 
gent ; and agreeable in everything excepting the unfortunate 
derangement and fhapes of her teeth; the front ones of which, 
in the upper jaw, protruding half an inch or more forward of 
the lower ones, and quite incapable of being covered by the 
lip, for which there was a conitant effort; the refult of which 
was a molt pitiable expreffion of the mouth, and confequently 
of the whole face, with continual embarraffment and unhappi- 
nefs of the young Lady, and fympathy of her friends. With 
all the other charms requilite to have foothed and comforted 
the life of any man, file lived a life of comparative folitude ; 
and a few years lince, after a lapfe of 30 years, I met her again; 
and though in her old age, fhe was handfome,-her teeth were 
all gone, and her lips, from the natural fweetnefs and ferenity 
of her temper, feemed to have returned to their native and 
childifh expreffion, as if making up for the unnatural and pain- 
ful fervitude they had undergone. 
The human mouth, with the great variety of duties it has 
to perform, is fubjeft to a fufficient variety of expreffions and 
diftortions from abufe, independent of thofe ariling from the 
habit I am condemning. 
The Ear, the Nofe, and the Eyes, being lefs mutable, and 
lefs liable to change of character and fhapes, feldom lofe their THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
65 
natural expreflion; while original nature is as feldom feen 
remaining in the expreflion of the adult mouth. 
This feature, from the variety of its powers and ufes, as well 
as expreflions, is undoubtedly the greateft myftery in the material 
organization of man. In infant Nature it is always innocent 
and fweet, and fometimes is even fo in adult life. 
Its endlefs modulations of found may produce the richeft, 
the fweeteft of mufic, or the moft frightful and unpleafant founds 
in the world. It converfes, it curfes, and applauds; it com- 
mends and reproves, it flanders, it flatters, it prays and it pro- 
fanes, it blafphemes and adores-blows hot and blows cold- 
fpeaks foft tones of love and affedion, and rough notes of ven- 
geance and hatred; it bites, and it woos-it kifles, ejeds faliva, 
eats cherries, Roaff Beef, and Chicken, and a thoufand other 
things-drinks coffee, gin, and Mint-juleps (and fometimes 
Brandy), takes pills, and Rhubarb and Magnefia-tells tales, and 
keeps fecrets, is pretty, or is ugly, of all fhapes, and of all flzes, 
with teeth white, teeth black, and teeth yellow, and with no 
teeth at all. 
During the day, it is generally eating, drinking, finging, 
laughing, grinning, pouting, talking, fmoking, fcolding, whiffling, 
chewing, or fpitting, all of which have a tendency to keep it 
open ; and if allowed to be open during the night, is feen, as 
has been defcribed, by its derangement of the teeth, to create 
thereby, its own worft deformity. 
How ftrange is the fad, that of the three creations-the 
Brute, the Savage, and the Civilized Races-the ftupid and irra- 
tional are taught to perfedly proted and preferve their teeth, 
through the natural term of life ; the ignorant, Savage Races of 
mankind, with judgment enough comparatively to do fo; when 
5 66 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
enlightened man, with the greateft amount of knowledge, of 
pride, and conceit in his good looks, lacks the power to fave 
them from premature decay, and total deftrudion 2 Showing, 
that in the enjoyment of his artificial comforts and pleafures, he 
deftroys his teeth, his good looks, and often his life, in his 
thoughtlefs departure from natural fimplicities and inftind. 
The Young Readers, whom I imagine myfelf now addrefs- 
ing, are old enough to read my advice, and to underhand it, 
and confequently able to make, and to perfevere in, their own 
determined refolutions, which will be fure to conquer in the 
end, the habit alluded to, if it has already been allowed to grow 
upon them. 
I advife you to turn back and read again, unlefs you can 
diftindly recoiled it, the perfed succefs that I met with in my 
own cafe, even at a far more advanced age, and confequently 
the habit more difficult to corred ; and refolve at every moment 
of your waking hours (except when it is neceffary to open them) 
to keep your lips and teeth firmly preffed together; and your 
teeth, at all events, under any and every emotion, of pain or of 
pleafure, of fear, of furprife, or admiration; and from a con- 
tinual habit of this fort, which will prepare you to meet more 
calmly and coolly the ufual excitements of life, you will find it 
extending through your fleeping hours, if you will clofe your 
lips and your eyes in the fixed determination, and effedually 
correding or preventing the difgufting and dangerous habit of 
lleeping with the mouth open. 
Not only manly beauty is produced, and manly firmnefs of 
charader expreffed by a habitual compreffion of the lips and 
teeth; but courage, fteadinefs of the nerves, coolnefs, and power, 
are the infallible refults. THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
<'7 
Men who have been jollied about amongft the viciffitudes of 
a long life, amidft their fellow men, will have obferved that all 
nervoufnefs commences in the mouth. Men who lack the 
courage to meet their fellow men in phylical combat, are afraid, 
not of their enemy, nor from a convidion of their own inferiority, 
but from the difarming nervoufnefs of an open and tremulous 
mouth ; the vibrations of which reach and weaken them, to the 
ends of their fingers and their toes. In public debates-in the 
Forum or the Pulpit, a fimilar alarm refults in their certain 
defeat; and before a hive of Bees, in the fame want of confi- 
dence, the odour of fear which they emit, is fure to gain them 
the fting. 
In one of the exciting fcenes of my roaming life, I recoi- 
led to have witnefled a ftrong illuftration of the above remarks, 
while refiding in one of the Sioux Villages, on the banks of the 
upper Miflburi. A ferious quarrel having arifen between one 
of the Fur Company's men and a Sioux Brave, a challenge was 
given by the Indian and accepted by the White Man, who were 
to meet upon the prairie, in a ftate of nudity, and unattended; 
and decide the affair with their knives. 
A few minutes before this horrible combat was to have com- 
menced, both parties being on the ground, and perfedly pre- 
pared, the Fador and myfelf fucceeded in bringing them to a 
reconciliation, and finally to a (baking of hands; by which we 
had the fatisfadion of knowing, beyond a doubt, that we had 
been the means of faving the life of one of theife men; and a 
fliort time afterwards, while alone with the Indian, I afked him 
if he had not felt fears of his antagonift, who appeared much 
his fuperior in fize and in ftrength-to which he very promptly 
replied-" no, not in the lead:; I never fear harm from a man 68 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
who can't fliut his mouth, no matter how large or how ftrong he 
may be." I was forcibly ftruck with this reply, as well as with 
the conviftion I had got in my own mind (and no doubt from 
the fame fyraptoms) that the white man would have been killed, 
if they had fought. 
That there is an unnatural and lafting contour, as well as an 
expreffion of uglinefs and lack of manly firmnefs of cha- 
racter produced in the human face by the habit I have 
defcribed, every difcerning member of fociety is able eafily to 
decide. 
Natural. 
Changed by habit. 
No one would hefitate a moment in deciding which of thefe 
he would have the moft reafon to fear in battle, or which to 
choofe as his Advocate, for the protedion of his life or his 
property. 
No young Lady would delay a moment, in faying which of 
thefe, in her eftimation, is the belt looking young man; or 
deciding (in her own mind) which of them (he would prefer 
for her Suitor, provided (he were to take either. 
No one would hefitate in deciding which of thefe horfes to 
buy (provided the poor Brutes were viftims to fuch misfor- 
tunes). THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
69 
And no one, moft affuredly, fo poor a Phyfiognomift as not 
to decide in a moment, which of thefe young Ladies was the 
moft happy, and which would be likely to get married the firft; 
Nature. 
Habit. 
and from thefe innocent and helplefs dartings in life, it is eafy 
to perceive how man's bed fuccefs, or fird and word misfor- 
tunes are forediadowed, and the fond mother, whild die watches, 
in thoughtlefs happinefs, over her deeping idol, may read in 
that little open mouth, the certain index to her future forrows.  
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
It has already been faid that man is an "open mouthed 
animal," and alio fliown that he is only fo by habit, and not by 
Nature; and that the moft ftriking difference which is found to 
exift between Mankind in Savage and Civil hates, confifts in that 
habit and its confequences, to be found in their relative fanitary 
conditions. 
The American Savage often /miles, but feldom laughs ; and 
he meets moft of the emotions of life, however fudden and 
exciting they may be, with his lips and his teeth clofed. He is, 
neverthelefs, garrulous and fond of anecdote and jocular fun in 
his own firefide circles; but feels and exprefles his pleafure 
without the explofive aftion of his mufcles, and gefticulation, 
which charafterize the more cultivated Races of his fellow 
men 
Civilized people, who, from their educations, are more 
excitable, regard moft exciting, amufing, or alarming fcenes 
with the mouth open; as in wonder, aftonifhment, pain, pleafure, 
lillening, &c., and in laughing, draw pleafure in currents of air 
through their teeth, by which they infure (perhaps) pain for 
themfelves, in their fober moments, and for their teeth, difeafes 
and decay which no Dentifts can cure. 
The Savage, without the change of a mufcle in his face, 
liftens to the rumbling of the Earthquake, or the thunder's crafli, 
with his hand over his mouth, and if by the extreme of other 
excitements he is forced to laugh or to cry, his mouth is 
invariably hidden in the fame manner. 
As an illuftration of fome of the above remarks, perhaps 
" Punch and Judy" which is generally as apt as any other excit- 
ing fcene to unmafk the juveniles, may with effect be alluded 
to for contraft of expreffion, as familiar in our ftreets, or as it THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
7J 
would be viewed by an equal multitude of favage chil- 
dren. 
It is one of the misfortunes of Civilization, that it has too 
many amuling and exciting things for the mouth to fay, and 72 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
too many delicious things for it to tafte, to allow of its being 
clofed during the day; the mouth, therefore, has too little 
referve for the protection of its natural purity of expreffibn ; 
and too much expofure for the protection of its garniture; and, 
(" good advice is never too late") keep your mouth fhut when 
you read, when you write, when you liften, when you are in 
pain, when you are walking, when you are running, when you 
are riding, and, by all means, when you are angry. There is no 
perlon in fociety but who will find, and acknowledge, improve- 
ment in health and enjoyment, from even a temporary attention 
to this advice. 
Mankind, from the caufes which have been named, are all, 
more or lefs invalids, from infancy to the end of their lives; 
and he who would make the moft of life under thefe neceflary 
ills; fecure his good looks, and prolong his exigence; fliould 
take care that his lungs and his teeth, however rpuch they may 
be from habit, or from neceffity, abufed during the day, fliould 
at leaf! be treated with kindnefs during the night. 
The habit againft which I am contending, when ftrongly 
contraded, I am fully aware, is a difficult one to correft ; but 
when you think ferioufly of its importance, you will make your 
refolutions fo ftrong, and keep them with fuch fixed and 
determined perfeverance, that you will be fure to fucceed in 
the end. 
If you charge your minds during the day fufficiently ftrong, 
with any event which is to happen in the middle of the night, 
you are fure to wake at, or near the time; and if fo, and your 
minds dwell, with fufficient attention, on the importance of this 
fubjeft during the day, and you clofe your eyes and your teeth 
at the fame time, carrying this determination into your fleep, THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
73 
there will be a ftrong monitor during your reft, that your mouth 
muft be fliut; and the benefits you will feel during the follow- 
ing day, from even a partial fuccefs, will encourage you to per- 
fevere, until at laft, the grand and important object will be 
accompliflied. 
One fingle fuggeftion more, Young Readers, and you will 
be ready to be your own Phyficians, your own protedors againft 
the horrors of the Nightmare, Snoring, and the dangerous 
difeafes above defcribed. 
When you are in a theatre, you will obferve that moft per- 
fons in the pit, looking up to the gallery, will have their mouths 
wide open; and thofe in the gallery, looking down into the pit, 
will be as fure to have their mouths fliut. Then, when you 
lay your head upon your pillow, advance it a little forward, fo 
as to imagine yourfelf looking from the Gallery of a Theatre 
into the Pit, and you have all the fecrets, with thofe before 
mentioned, for difpelling from you the moft abominable and 
deftruftive habit that ever attached itfelf to the human Race. 
To Men and Women, of maturer age and experience, the 
fame advice is tendered; but with them the habit may be more 
difficult to correft; but with all, it is worth the trial, becaufe 
there is no poffibility of its doing any harm, and it cofts 
nothing. 
For the greater portion of the thoufands, and tens of thou- 
fands of perfons fuffering with weaknefs of lungs, with Bron- 
chitis, Afthma, indigeftion, and other affedions of the Digeftive 
and Refpiratory organs, there is a Panacea in this advice too 
valuable to be difregarded, and (generally) a relief within their 
own reach, if they will avail themfelves of it. 
Approach the bedfides of perfons fuffering under either of 74 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
the above dangerous difeafes, and they will be found to be 
fleeping with their mouths wide open, and working their lungs 
with an over-draught of air upon them, and fubjed to its mid- 
night changes of temperature as the fires go down ; and thus 
nightly renewing and advancing their difeafes which their Phy- 
ficians are making their daily efforts in vain to cure. 
To fuch perfons my ftrongeft fympathy extends, for I have 
fuffered in the fame way; and to them I gladly, and in full con- 
fidence of its beneficial refults, recommend the correftion of the 
habit, in the way I have defcribed; their ftern perfeverance in 
which will foon afford them relief; and their firft night of 
natural fleep will convince them of the importance of my 
advice. 
Man's life (in a certain fenfe) may be faid to " be in his own 
hands," his body is always clofely inverted by difeafes and 
death. When awake, he is rtrong, and able to contend with, 
and keep out his enemies; but when he is afleep he is weak; 
and if the front door of his houfe be then left open, thieves and 
robbers are fure to walk in. 
There is no harm in my repeating that Mothers fliould be 
looked to as the firft and principal corredors of this mod 
deftruttive of human habits; and for the cafes which efcape 
their infant cares, or which commence in more advanced ftages 
of life. I have pointed out the way in which every one may 
be his or her Phyfician; and the united and fimultaneous efforts 
of the Civilized World fliould alfo be exerted in the overthrow 
of a Monfter fo deftruftive to the good looks and life of man. 
Every Phyfician fliould advife his patients, and every Boarding 
School in exiftence, and every hofpital, fliould have its furgeon 
or matron, and every Regiment its Officer, to make their THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
IS 
nightly, and hourly, "rounds," to force a ftop to fo unnatural, 
difgufting, and dangerous a habit. 
Under the working of fuch a fyftem, mothers guarding and 
helping the helplefs, Schoolmafters their fcholars, hofpital fur- 
geons their patients, Generals their foldiers, and the reft of the 
world proteding themfelves, a few years would fhow the glori- 
ous refults in the Bills of Mortality, and the next generation 
would be a Re-generation of the Human Race. 
The Reader will have difcovered, that in the foregoing 
remarks (unlike the writer of a Play or a Romance, who follows 
a yto or a plot) I have aimed only at jotting down, with little 
arrangement, fuch fads as I have gained, and obfervations I 
have made, in a long and laborious life; on a fubjed which I 
have deemed of vaft importance to the human Race; and 
which, from a renfe of duty, I am now tendering to my fellow 
beings, believing, that if fufficiently read and appreciated, 
thoufands and tens of thoufands of the human family may, 
by their own efforts, refcue their lives, and thofe of their children, 
from premature graves. 
And in doing this, I take to myfelf, not only the fatisfadion 
of having performed a pofitive duty, but the conjblations, that what 
I have propofed can be tried by all claffes of fociety alike, the 
Rich and the Poor, without pain, without medicine, and with- 
out expenfe ; and alfo, that thoufands ot fuffering wanderers in 
the wilderneffes and malaria of foreign lands, as well as of thofe 
in the midft of the luxuries of their own comforta bl homes, 
will privately thank me in their own hearts, for hints they will 
have got from the foregoing pages. 
The Proverb, as old and unchangeable as their hills, amongft 76 
THE BREATH OF LIFE. 
the North American Indians: "My ion, if you would be wife, 
open firft your Eyes, your Ears next, and laft of ally your 
Mouth, that your words may be words of wifdom, and give no 
advantage to thine adverfary," might be adopted with good 
effeft in Civilized life; and he who would ftridly adhere to it, 
would be fure to reap its benefits in his waking hours; and 
would foon find the habit running into his hours of reft, 
into which he would calmly enter; difmifTing the nervous 
anxieties of the day, as he firmly clofed his teeth and his lips, 
only to be opened after his eyes and his ears, in the morning; 
and the reft of fuch fleep would bear him daily and hourly proof 
of its value. 
And if I were to endeavour to bequeathe to pofterity the 
moft important Motto which human language can convey, it 
fliould be in three words- 
Shut-your-mouth. 
In the facial tranfadions of life, this might have its benefi- 
cial refults, as the moft friendly, cautionary advice, or be 
received as the grofleft of infults; but where I would point and 
engrave it, in every Nurfery, and on every Bed-poft in the 
Univerfe, its meaning could not be miftaken; and if obeyed, 
its importance would foon be realized. Appendix. 
From the obfervations, with their refults, on board of a Mail Steamer, given in 
a former page, together with numerous others of a fimilar nature made whilft I 
have been in the midft of Yellow fever and the Cholera in the Weft India Iflands 
and South America; 1 confcientioufly advance my belief, that in any Town or 
City where either of thofe peftilences commences its ravages, if that portion of 
the inhabitants who are in the nightly habit of fleeping with their mouths open 
were to change their refidence to the country, the infeftion would foon terminate, 
for want of fubjefts to exift upon. 
This opinion may be ftartling to many; and if it be combated, all the 
better; for in fuch cafe the important experiment will more likely be made. 
Author. 
Rio Grande, Brazil, i860. T H E 
BREATH ,f LIFE. 
All Life (on Earth) is Breath. 
All Else (on earth) is death. 
By 
WITH 25 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
NEW YORK: 
J O M 1ST 
UM. 
Price Twenty-Five Cents) T H E 
BREATH «f LIFE. 
All Life (on earth) is breath. 
ALL ELSE (ON EARTH) IS DEATH. 
WITH 2x) ILLUSTRATIONS. 
X E W Y () R K : 
JOHN "WILEY, 
1861. 
Price Twenty-Five Ocntsa