Excerpt from British Journal of Children's Diseases, 1906, Vol. 3 The shape of the chest at birth differs from that of the adult. Its circumference is almost, if not quite, circular instead of oval. As a consequence of the circular shape alteration in the capacity of the thorax during respiration is difficult. During respiration in the adult the raising of the ribs causes the oval shape of the chest to become more circular, and the capacity is consequently increased. Since little of this increase can take place in the infant by means of thoracic movements the interchange of air in the lungs is carried on chiefly by the diaphragm, and the respiration is consequently described as abdominal. A cyrtometer tracing of the chest has been added of a child, aged 7 months, which shows well the circular shape. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.