Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1910 — AN “AIR JAG.” [ARTICLE]

AN “AIR JAG.”

Forced Bremthln* la a Stimulant wltk No “Morale* After" Effects. It )ias been noticed by different investigators that deep violent breathing for several minutes so changes the system as to make respiration unnecessary for perhaps as much as live minutes after this preparatory breathing is over. One who has made the experiment found that after four minutes enforced breathing it was possible to hold his breath for three and a half minutes, though without such preparation his limit was only 56 seconds. The time during which It is possible to do without respiration, increases, or course, with the length of time during which the preparatory breathing is carried on, but only up to a certain definite limit, which varies somewhat with different persons. Long after this "washing out of the lungs,” as the Yogi philosophers would call It must have been completed, the preparatory breathing is still effective. The change produced in the system is certainly more fundamental than a lung transformation, therefore, and would appear to indicate a temporary alteration in blood constitution. The effect of this rapid breathing as a mental stimulant is very pronounced. Mental fatigue may be postponed, far beyond the usual point, by two minutes of rapid deep breathing at half-hour intervals. A feeling of sluggishness or sleepiness may be almost completely dispelled. There seems to be no reaction, as in the case of most stimulants, and in every way this “air Jag” is quite satisfactory. The effect on muscular fatigue is also striking. A difficult arm exercise with heavy weights which under ordinary circumstances could not be repeated (nore than 20 times, after four minutes of this preparatory breathing could be done 27 times. The pulse beat goes up rapidly while the breathing is continued. Another curious effect is the apparent rapid lapse of time during the latter half of a hard breathing period. This change in the time sense is very noticeable. As a mental stimulant, and as a means to increase the time during which the system can do without respiration, violent breathing might find considerable useful application,, and daring rescues from suffocation are common enough to make a knowledge of this possible threefold endurance without air of no little value.