Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/171

 passages. A prolonged cold or a series of colds compel the use of the mouth for the act of breathing, a method that, if not corrected, eventually becomes habitual. Constant irritation and inflammation of the mucus membrane of the nostrils and of the vault of the pharynx cause the much discussed adenoid growths to form, and obstruction of the air canal is thereafter permanent until removal of the obstacles is accomplished either by the fast or by surgical means. Children thus affected are stupid and sluggish and exhibit a characteristic facial expression approaching that of imbecility. In fact, when the habit of mouth breathing has been contracted in infancy or in adult life, even when no obstruction of the naso-pharyngeal vault exists, not only do the nasal passages, through the lack of exercise, fail of normal development, but the open mouth and dulled eyes denote a serious deficiency in intellectual advance and capability.

We cannot know the exact source whence is received the influx of vitality and energy, the expression of which is life, nor in what manner these forces penetrate the physical body and animate its movements and its thought, but whatever is gained of vital