Word: diaphragmic
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...place, is shown by the sufferings of those confined in the "Black Hole" of Calcutta. Huxley has computed that a man needs 23,000 cubic feet of air every day, that his excretions of carbonic acid may not pollute the air. Pleurisy not only affects the lungs but the diaphragm, which is the principal agent in drawing air into the lungs. The enlargement of the pleura forces the air out of the air cells, thin walls are brought into contact with each other, and the whole lung in an airless condition may be pressed into the back part...
...ordinary easy breathing most of the work is done by the action of the diaphragm, a large muscle which separates the abdomen from the chest. It is fastened to the ribs and the back bone and it arches upward; when it contracts it flattens, and by pulling on the base of the chest, makes it larger. This enlargement of the chest is also performed by little muscles between intercostals. They raise the ribs from their oblique position. In ordinary healthy respiration the current of air passes in and out of the lungs through the nose, not through the mouth...
Hiccough is caused by a spasm of the diaphragm and results sometimes from irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach, as by alcohol...
...absence of any person fitted to supplement him, he has been made the sole instructor. The best part of his system is similar to principles of voice culture heretofore confined wholly to teachers of vocal music. He seeks by simple exercises to give a free movement to the diaphragm, and to insure that every word is supported from that depth; the chest to be resonant and full, with a supple readiness and activity at the lips. The instruction is wholly by classes, and not, as has heretofore been the case with upper-class men, by fifteen minute appointments...
...indicate the general nature of my system. The phrenologist founds his opinions upon the physical development of the head, the knemidologist upon the sartorial decoration of the leg. I consider my word justifiable, for the modern trouser is as nearly related to the antique greave as is the Greek diaphragm to the developed brain of the nineteenth century. Without further introduction, I will proceed to recount the result of the series of observations which has led me to believe that knemidology is capable of reduction to the form of as exact and logical a science as its loftier brother...