lways allows of a reserve quantity of air being retained
in the lungs. That sense of unwasted resource, the feeling so important
to convey to the audience that, much as the singer has accomplished, the
limit of his capacity has by no means been reached, and that, like a
great commander, he has his forces well in hand, is holding back his
reserves and does not expect to launch them into action at all, can be
created only by perfect control of the air-column; and that control of
breath is gained best by a pause, if only for a fraction of a second,
between inspiration and expiration.

Moreover, holding the breath for a little while before expiration is
conducive to good health, a condition, needless to say, which creates
confidence and buoyancy in the singer and adds greatly to the efficiency
of his voice and the effectiveness of his performance. Proper breathing
is a cleaning process for the interior of the body. It cleanses the
residual air, the air that remains in the lungs after each respiration;
and it does much more. Air enters the lungs as oxygen; it comes out as
carbonic acid, an impure gas created by the impurities of the body. The
process of breathing dispatches the blood on a cleansing process through
the whole body, and, while traveling through this, it collects all the
poisonous gases and carries them back to the lungs to be emitted with
expiration. By holding the breath we prolong this process, make it more
thorough, and correspondingly free the body of more impurities. From the
classic ages down physicians have advocated retaining the breath for
a little while after inspiration as an aid to general health, and the
taking and holding of a full breath has been compared with opening doors
and windows of a house for ventilation.

Sir Morell Mackenzie emphasizes this purifying function of respiration
in his book on the "Hygiene of the Vocal Organs." It consists, as he
says, essentially in an exchange of gases between the blood and the air,
wherein the former yields up some of the waste matters of the system in
the form of carbonic acid, receiving in return a fresh supply of oxygen.
It is evident from this how important it is to have a sufficient supply
of pure air, air which contains its due proportion of oxygen to renovate
the blood. A room in which a number of people are sitting soon becomes
close if the windows and doors are kept shut. This indicates that the
oxygen in the air is exhausted, its place being tak