If you are an Anglo-Saxon, and make the muscles of your throat rigid,
thereby stopping inspiration through the trachea into the thorax, you
will soon experience a decided movement of the abdomen, in conformity
with which it will first expand anteriorly, then posteriorly, and again
anteriorly. There will now be a pause, after which the abdomen will
be first expanded posteriorly, then anteriorly, and again posteriorly.
This is as far as you can go; you will be compelled to release your
hold on your throat after these six movements; the thorax meanwhile
remaining passive.
Upon next making the muscles of the back of your neck rigid, equal to
those of the œsophagus, the latter being thereby closed to respiration,
you will soon experience a decided movement of the thorax, by which
it will be first expanded posteriorly, then anteriorly, and again
posteriorly. There will now be a pause, after which the thorax will be
first expanded anteriorly, then posteriorly, and again anteriorly.
These twelve movements constitute one act of respiration during which
inspiration and expiration for thorax and abdomen equalize each other.
The first three movements of the abdomen, consisting of an inspiration,
an expiration, and an inspiration, constitute what is commonly called
an inspiration; the second three movements of the abdomen, consisting
of an expiration, an inspiration, and an expiration, constitute what
is commonly called an expiration. Of the six movements of the thorax
succeeding these, the first three, consisting of an inspiration, an
expiration, and an inspiration, are equal to an inspiration; the last
three, consisting of an expiration, an inspiration, and an expiration,
are equal to an expiration. We thus have four complete respirations,
two of which, equal to an inspiration and an expiration, belong to the
abdomen; and two, likewise equal to an inspiration and an expiration,
belong to the thorax.
Inasmuch as each of these four respirations is composed of three
separate movements, one complete respiration consists of twelve
separate movements of the respiratory organs. This relates to our
ordinary mode of breathing. For vocal utterance, more especially the
utterance of a vocal sound, these four respirations are first made
for the impression, and are then, in an inverse order, repeated for
the expression. This gives us eight movements, or an _octave_ of
movements, for each vocal sound; these eight movements, as a matter of
fact, consisting of twenty-four separate movements of the respiratory
organs. These movements, which in our experiment were of relatively
long duration, during our ordinary mode of breathing follow upon one
another very rapidly; thorax and abdomen, which during our experiment
were restrained, ordinarily and when unrestrained, acting and reacting
upon one another in quick succession.
The preceding experiment gives us the following result:
ABDOMEN
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