to action.

In proper breathing the feeling is as if the intake commenced with the
upper ribs and terminated over the abdomen. We even feel, in taking in
a deep breath, as if all our power were directed toward the four or
five upper ribs and as if we were giving the greatest expansion to the
very apex of the lungs; but the simple fact is that the six upper ribs
encompass more space than the six lower ones, consequently in proper
breathing the most movement is experienced where the cavity formed
admits of the greatest expansion of the lungs.

To say that no other style of breathing excepting that which has been
described as correct, the mixed costal and diaphragmatic, ever should be
employed, would be a mistake, but any other should be employed, when at
all, only for rare and specific effects. For example, a tenor in reaching
for a high note may find that the violent raising of the collarbone and
shoulder-blades, which is involved in clavicular breathing, assists him
at the critical moment, and he may, rightfully, perhaps, employ that
method in that one great effort of an evening--remembering, however,
that Rubini actually broke his collarbone in delivering a very high note.
Tenors sometimes reach for their high notes with their arms and legs, and
if the high note comes out all right, we forget the effort in the thrill
over the result, provided effort does not degenerate into contortion.
Similarly in an unusually powerful, explosive _fortissimo_, a momentary
use of pure abdominal breathing may be excusable. But these are
exceptions that prove the rule, and very rare exceptions they should
remain.

In breathing, the correct method of inspiration is to provide the room
required for the inflation of the lungs by enlarging the chest-cavity
to its greatest possible extent, which is accomplished by expanding the
whole framework of the ribs and allowing the diaphragm to descend, the
clavicle rising passively while the wall of the abdomen at first extends
and then, as to its lower anterior portion, slightly sinks in.

Sir Morell Mackenzie recognized that artistic inspiration is a
combination of methods. "When costal or diaphragmatic breathing is
spoken of," he writes in "Hygiene of the Vocal Organs," "it must always
be remembered that in the normal human body both methods are always used
together, the one assisting and completing the other. The terms are in
reality relative, and are, or should be, applied only as one or the