Another cause is any imperfect adjustment of the muscular mechanism, a failure which may be due to incorrect training, to unconscious imitation, or to any of the chances which are always being presented to the child in the haphazard system of physical education which obtains in our nurseries and schools. And on this note I may well conclude my chapter, for no argument I can advance in favour of a careful consideration of the principles I have laid down can have such cogency and force as the most superficial examination of the physique of the children in our schools and the adults in our streets. We are indeed suffering, not only in Great Britain but on the continents of Europe and America, from a failure to recognise that man is no longer a natural animal, whose life-habits were dependent upon the development of the faculty of instinct, and that all systems of physical culture (and how diverse they are!) must necessarily fail unless they take into account that first and last essential, the free use and consciousness of the reasoning, controlling mind. PART III THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF A NEW METHOD OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION _First published 1907._ “Whoever hesitates to utter that which he thinks the highest truth, lest it should be too much in advance of the time, may reassure himself by looking at his acts from an impersonal point of view.... It is not for nothing that he has in him these sympathies with some principles and repugnance to others. He, with all his capacities, and aspirations, and beliefs, is not an accident, but a product of the time. He must remember that while he is a descendant of the past he is a parent of the future; and that his thoughts are as children born to him, which he may not carelessly let die.”—HERBERT SPENCER. I INTRODUCTORY It may be of interest to my readers to know that the method I have founded is the result of a practical and unique experience, for my knowledge was gained— 1. While vainly attempting to eradicate personal, vocal, and respiratory defects by recognised systems. 2. While afterwards putting into practice certain original principles, which enabled me to eradicate these defects. 3. While giving personal demonstrations of the application of these principles from a respiratory, vocal, and health-giving point of view. I first imparted the method thus evolved to patients recommended by medical men over ten years prior to June, 1904. At that date I introduced it to leading London medical men, who, after investigation, decided that the method was, as one doctor put it, “the most efficient known to (him).” The method makes for— In _Education_: 1. Prevention of certain defects hereinafter referred to. 2. Adequate and correct use of the muscular mechanisms concerned with respiration. In _Re-education_: