HOW WE APPROACH a flood of Leakages that come from the losses of muscular electrical energy that is thrown away without purpose and without control. These take place in all parts of the body, and generally at some terminals. What is known as the fidgets applies to the whole body, and in the manner which has just been described in the preceding lesson. Terminal losses are localized and are not as general as the fidgets. The latter attract more attention because they are larger activities. Terminals lose a great amount of vital energy on the principle that they release the power much as points release electricity. We will describe some familiar experiences, in which terminals form an important part with others included.

Typewriting.—It is a well known fact that more than ninety percent of all who use the typewriter for any length of time, are restless and nervous. Under a system of smooth and easy motion this nervousness may be controlled. There are two kinds of touch for a typewriter; one that resembles the touch of a skilled pianist, and the other that is a succession of pounds with the fingers on the keys. The latter is the cause of loss of vitality. A smooth motion as is seen in the most skilled piano playing, does not tax the nervous vitality except as all excess of work may weary for the time. Many a young lady has suffered from nervous prostration because of too much work at the typewriter, and doctors are constantly having to deal with such cases. Any jerky movement is hurtful to the vitality.

Winking.—We have always attacked this fault first of alls and not until the pupil is able to suppress at all times the habit of moving the eyelids will there ever be a hope of acquiring magnetism. Here is the battle ground for a majority of the readers of these lessons. We are often told that the habit cannot be cured, and our reply is, then give up the study of magnetism. But the habit is being cured every year in thousands of cases, and consequently there is little virtue in the claim that it is a hopeless task to get rid of it in every instance. Attention is the sole method of overcoming it.

Gaping.—This fault is due to a low state of vitality, and the person who is addicted to it is as far from magnetism as the sun is distant from the darkest corner of a cave. It is not only a clear evidence of weakness, such as follows indigestion in nine cases out of ten, or loss of sleep, or wasting of the energy as in excesses of any kind; but is also bad manners and bad deportment. When the claim is made that it cannot be cured, let the usual method of suppressing it be applied. This is to omit every alternate gape. The cure is complete. Even the loss of sleep and indigestion cannot compel the gape against that cure. Omitting every other gape soon reduces the number to less than one in an hour, as the omissions become less and less.

Face Motions.—These are of various kinds. The most common is the action of the lips, and especially of the tongue. These are very small matters, but they have their influence for ill. One of the signs of approaching senility is the habit of constantly moving the tongue against the upper or lower lip, or the lips against the teeth. It is evidence of weakness, and magnetism is a power. Therefore the book of the face should not bear records that are read by people at a glance.

There are other petty physical habits that might be included in the list, but they are generally swept away by a successful contest with those we have named.

While life demands activity, there is a large distinction between regulated power, and force running away with itself. What the will directs, increases the power; and what is directed at haphazard is sure to weaken the power.

Drumming:—Some people drum with their fingers; some with their feet. We have known many such drummers, and have never seen one of them who was in the lead magnetic. It is notonly evidence of Leakage of vitality but of exceedingly bad manners; and persons who arc ill-bred rarely get anywhere in the world that is worth while.

Variety when not the spice of life.—To show to what extent non-magnetic people lose their electrical energy, let us peruse thefollowing list:

Fingers.—Not only as drummers on the table or anything handly except an actual drum, do the fingers play their part, but they have numerous other motions. They twirl the mustache, if there is one. They rub against themselves as if brushing crumbs away. They open and shut. They are interlaced at times in a restless manner. They spread themselves. They rub the chin, stroke the face, pull at the ears, caress the nose, and engage in any kind of activity that they can invent.

The cook when making the toast scratches her scalp with her finger nails and releases a lot of dandruff that otherwise right remain intact.

The embarrassed lover when trying for the first time to propose to his lady friend, finds a coat button handy for his fingers to Work at and eventually to twist off; and not until he has twisted from their fastenings all but one of the buttons on the front of the coat, does she accept him for the sake of saving that final button. On other occasions men finger their coat buttons as a habit and not due to embarrassment.

The number of both sexes who work their toes when the latter are hidden in their shoes, cannot be surmised; but this fault is a familiar one, as all persons may easily believe who know the eagerness of the terminals to throw off waste vitality.

Leg Swinging.—We have seen ladies sitting for an hour or more, some of whom were wiggling the feet all the time, using the hinge action of the ankle for the purpose. The action consisted of pointing the toes toward the ceiling and immediately dipping them toward the floor. This motion they were not cognizant of, but nevertheless it was maintained without cessation. We have seen other ladies and more men who preferred to cross the legs at the knees, swing the whole lower part of the limb forward and back, and sometimes right and left when other persons present were not in the way. A number of these added a special accomplishment by making circles with the toes.

Non-magnetic Positions.—In almost any law office, and often in the office of a realty company, you will note the customary position of the body of the male clerk who is sitting at the table or desk. He is slouched down far into his chair, his head is lower than his feet, and the latter are resting on the table or desk. The chances are ten to one that he is reading some murder or slander case in the newspaper; and a thousand to one that he has a cigarette in his mouth. There are States in the Union where the feet rest on the mantel, if the legs are long enough.

Most chairs are uncomfortable. They compel the person who would use them for resting the upper part of the body, to lounge in them in strained positions even when merely sitting. The common illustration of this fact is seen in the straight backs of some church pews and of some drawing-room chairs. The cure of this fault is to ignore the back and allow the body to rest itself only as far as its sitting posture is concerned. After standing until you are weary, or after walking until any kind of sitting support is acceptable, you are glad to get even a box or log to sit upon, and may exclaim, "How delightful," yet the box as well as the log is without a back and you never notice it. The support of the back is not required in most cases until the body has been sitting too long; then, instead of rising on the legs as ought to be done, the custom is to shift the support from the sitting posture to that of leaning back against something. When this proves too monotonous, there is always an inclination to lean further back, until the hammock or the lounge is wanted.

During this process of wearing out the vital forces, the body is getting more and more tired. It becomes a refreshing relief to be able to lie down, and to thus employ the faculties in reading or studying. This tired out feeling is seen in law offices and other places where men and young men lounge into easy attitudes until they are seen with feet on the table or mantel, and their heads far below a normal relative position.

Where the circulation of the blood is interfered with, the vitality is low. When the back receives any support the heart lessens its efforts to push the blood through the body. Remove the support from the back and the heart will do much more vigorous work. Now stand, and the heart still increases its activity; and this increase is very marked when you walk, and quite energetic when you run; showing a steady proportionate effort of this great organ of life to keep pace with the demands of the muscular system.

The more you rest, the more you will require rest.

The more you favor the back muscles, the more you will feel inelined to do so.

The more you sit with raised feet, lowered head and resting back the more you will want to do these things.

The more you lie abed, the more you will have to lie in bed.

The less you stand, the less you will be able to stand.

The less you walk, the less you will want to walk, except in certain abnormal instances where the deadness of the muscles rebels and a few minutes' walk is refreshing; but the weariness afterwards will make you declare that you will not give way to such indiscretion again. Then, awaking to the fact that you are muscularly lazy, you try to atone for years of weakness by a few days or weeks of exercise, with the result that you break down the exhausted tissue and do yourself a permanent injury. Habits should be changed slowly if they affect the body or any of its faculties. Immoral habits may be changed by moral surgery, and haste never makes waste.

Another straining position is that which lets the chest fall down on the stomach. It ought to be trained out of all children from the first years of their schooling. This almost universal fault is the first step in consumption. Bold as the declaration may seem, we nevertheless make it, that you will not find consumption or its symptoms in a man or woman who is free from this bad habit. The fallen chest is weakness itself, and the heart is crowded and checked in its work. The raised chest compels the heart to do more work, its blood is drawn with remarkable energy all through the interiors that feed the lungs, and the vitality is such that the germs of tuberculosis could not long live there. You, who would like to do good in the world, take this one proposition into the lives of all men and women, into homes, and into schools, and note how a small principle will revolutionize humanity.

One fact is not generally known; it is this: The upper lungs never receive air from an in-going breath, but always from a repressed, energetic out-going breath, as when it accompanies some physical effort; or is forcibly discharged through the partly closed mouth. This effort should be tried occasionally.