From the Baltimore Sun on July 20, 1861:
"Shut Your Mouth."
This is the advice of Mr. George Catlin, who is so thoroughly convinced that most of the ills of our humanity are caused by open mouths, that he has written an amusing little volume to prove his case and urge his point upon the men and women of America.
"If I were to endeavor to bequeath to posterity the most important motto which human language can convey," (says Mr. Catlin,) "it should be in three words--Shut--your--Mouth."
Mr. Catlin addresses himself chiefly to mothers. He urges them to keep tightly closed not only their own mouths, but their children's, of both sexes and all ages. he assures them that out of the mouth, or through it--when it is open--proceeds consumption, dyspepsia, rotten teeth, a crooked spine, ill temper, snoring; and if there be any other diseases which men fear, they too assail man's vital parts by way of the mouth.
If you want to catch a contagious disease, sleep with your moth open. If you want to have disagreeable dreams, sleep with your mouth open. If you want to spoil your teeth, your good looks and your temper, sleep with your mouth open.
"Bronchitis, quinsey, croup, asthma and other diseases of the respiratory organs, as well as dyspepsia, gout of the stomach, rickets, diarrhea, diseases of the liver, the heart, the spine and the whole of the nervous system, from the brain to the toes, may chiefly be attributed to this deadly and unnatural habit" of sleeping with the mouth agape, like an oyster in his last agonies. "When a man lies down at night to rest from the fatigues of the day, and yields his system and all his energies to the repose of sleep, and his volition and all his powers of resistance are giving way to its quieting influence, if he gradually opens his mouth to its widest strain, he lets the enemy in that chills his lungs, that racks his brain, that paralyses his stomach, that gives him the nightmare, brings imps and fairies that dance before him during the night; and during the following day, headache, toothache, rheumatism, dyspepsia, and the gout."
Mr. Catlin believes that the nose was intended to be breathed through. He believes air should reach the lungs only through the nose, and never through the mouth; and to prove the correctness of his theory he cites a number of curious facts and experiences of his own.
He remarks that in times when cholera or yellow fever are prevalent, persons who habitually breathe through their mouth are most subject to these infections. And here we may bring in the general voice of seamen to co[r]roborate his statement. All experienced sailors sleep, habitually, with closely shut mouths. One reason for this may be that roaches, which are very large and extremely abundant on board ship, are apt to crawl into an open mouth to investigate its contents--the large East Indian roach being, as is well known, an animal of highly inquisitive character. But another and equally powerful reason is the general belief, among seamen, that the air laden with miasmatic poison is more or less purified by being inhaled through the nostrils. They believe with Mr. Catlin, that--
"The air which enters the lungs is as different from that which enters the nostrils as distilled water is different from the water in an ordinary cistern or a frog-pond. The arresting and purifying process of the nose, upon the atmosphere with its poisonous ingredients, passing through it, though less perceptible, is not less distinct nor less important than that of the mouth which stops cherry-stones and fish-bones from entering the stomach.
