Page:Illustrations of Madness.djvu/65

44 had nearly let go my breath) the elasticity of the fluid about me made it recoil from the forcible suction of the loom, much in the manner as a wave recoils or shrinks back after it has been forced forward on the sands in the ebbing or flowing of the tide : and then remains solely upon its own gravity, till the general flux or stress again, forces it forward in form of a wave. Such appears to me the action of the fluid, which, from the time the lever being fully down, loses all suction-force upon it. I always thought that by so opening my mouth, which many strangers, and those familiar or about me, called sometimes singularity, at others affectation and pretext, and at others asthmatic, &c. instantly let in such momentarily emancipated fluid about me, and enabled me sooner, easier, and with more certainty, to fill my lungs without straining them, and this at every breathing.