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always been the special home of the Yogis, where the atmas phere is for the most part pure and dry, ana of a temperature very near that of the human body. To this subject of atmospheric conditions we shall revert later on.
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF YOGAM
It is not generally supposed that the lungs have any specific action in renewing the oxygen of the blood.
are
of
"Essentially a lung, or gill, is constructed of a fine transparent membrane, one surface of which is exposed to the air or water, as the case may be, while on the other is a net work of blood-vessels, the only separation between the blood and the aerating medium being the thin wall of the blood-vessels and on the fine membrane on the side of which the vessels distributed.........The lungs are only the medium exchange, on the part of the blood, of carbonic acid of for oxygen."-(Kirke's Hand-book Physiology, are 214, 215). But these conditions also 1884, pp. present in the skin, which is likewise an animal menbrane containing blood-vessels, and necessarily subiect to the law of the diffusion of gases, though, as it is thicker than the lung membrane, and nature always seeks the easiest road, under the ordinary conditions in the case of human beings the action of the skin in respiration is very slight. But "under certain circumstances of arrest of the action of the lungs, the amount (of carbonic acid) passed off by the skin becomes notably increased. Holding the breath quickly induces perspiration in many persons.
in summer
In
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