h may be
improved, and much may be done in many ways to fortify those who have
inherited feeble constitutions against the attacks of disease. The
benefits resulting from maintaining an upright form, and a free and open
chest, have already been considered, and I shall have occasion to refer
to them again. The chest of most adults, although _incased with bone_,
may be increased several inches by drawing the arms back in the use of
_nature's own shoulder-braces_, and at the same time taking deep
inhalations of air, and filling the lungs to their utmost capacity.
Hundreds of individuals in different parts of the country have borne
testimony to the efficacy of this treatment in the improvement of their
health. The good results of such discipline in childhood are still more
manifest.

A stooping posture is frequently induced by sitting at tables and desks
that are too low. It has been erroneously maintained by some that the
top of the desk should be on the same plane with the elbow when the arm
hangs by the side. When the desk is higher, it has been said the
tendency is to elevate one shoulder, to depress the other, and to
produce a permanent curvature of the spinal column. Although this may
have been frequently the result of sitting at a high desk, yet it is not
a _necessary result_. To prevent the projection of one shoulder, and the
consequent spinal curvature, _both of the arms must be kept on the same
level_. For this purpose, there should be room to support them equally;
and care should be taken to see that this support is regularly sought.
If this be not done, the right arm will be apt to rise above the left,
from its more constant use and elevation. A physician, highly celebrated
for the success that has attended his treatment for lung affections,
after dwelling upon the injury to the health that frequently results
from sitting at too low desks, remarks, that "every parent should go to
the school-rooms, and know for a certainty that the desks at which his
children write or study are fully up to the arm-pits, and in no case
allow them to sit stooping, or leaning the shoulders forward on the
chest. If fatigued by this posture, they should be called to stand, or
go out of doors and run about." The height of table I find most
conducive to comfort for my own use is midway between the two; that is,
half way from the elbow (as the arm hangs by the side) to the arm-pit.
It is necessary, however, to rest both arms equally upon