death if you closed its nose; it does not
immediately know how to get air into the lungs through the mouth until
after, by depressing the tongue, you have once made a passage for it."

George Catlin, the celebrated traveller among American Indians, became
so thoroughly convinced that the difference between the healthy
condition and physical perfection of these people in their primitive
state, especially their sound teeth and good lungs, and the deplorable
mortality, the numerous diseases and deformities in _civilized_
communities, is mainly due to the habit, common among the latter, of
breathing through the mouth, especially during sleep, that he wrote a
book entitled "Malrespiration and its Effects upon the Enjoyment and
Life of Man." In this book he says, "If I were to endeavour to bequeath
to posterity the most important motto which human language can convey,
it should be in three words, 'Shut your mouth.' In the social
transactions of life this might have its beneficial results as the most
friendly cautionary advice, or be received as the grossest of insults;
but where I would print and engrave it, in every nursery and on every
bedpost in the universe, its meaning could not be mistaken, and obeyed,
its importance would soon be realized."

He also says, "It is one of the misfortunes of civilization that it has
too many amusing and exciting things for the mouth to say, and too many
delicious things for it to taste, to allow of its being closed during
the day. The mouth therefore has too little reserve for the protection
of its natural purity of expression, and too much exposure for the
protection of its garniture; but, _do keep your mouth shut_ when you
_read_, when you _write_, when you _listen_, when you _are in pain_,
when you are _walking_, when you are _running_, when you are _riding_,
and _by all means when you are angry_! There is _no person_ but who will
find and acknowledge _improvement_ in _health_ and _enjoyment_ from even
a temporary attention to this advice."

Again he says, "There is a proverb, as old and unchangeable as their
hills, amongst North American Indians, 'My son, if thou wouldst be wise,
open first thy eyes; thy ears next, and last of all thy mouth, that thy
words may be words of wisdom, and give no advantage to thine adversary.'
This might be adopted with good effect in _civilized_ life; he who would
_strictly adhere_ to it would be sure to reap its benefits in his
_waking_ hours, and would