A CHAT WITH DR MALCOLM.

Evening Star, Issue 12865, 14 July 1906, Page 5

A CHAT WITH DR MALCOLM.

AND SOME OBSERVATIONS.

[Bx A.S.]

There were forty-seven souls' and fcwfl> reporters in one of the class rooms at the University on Thursday evening. Bound the gas-lit demonstration table, whereon frogs' " innards," electrically stimulated, appeared, the Froebel Club clustered. Fatigue is an interesting sub- ; ject. "Possibly," says J. M. ~Barrier " we shall not be judged by how much we do bat by how hard we try." And this is a noble expression of idea whether we regard "judgment" as part of supernatural religion, or as a concomitant of evolution.

As an ex-school teacher I have followed the recent cry as to over-pressure with interest. Dr Truby King has made a noise in the land. Nevertheless, bis method is opposed to the scientific idea* The Education Board's chief inspector has pointed out that, as a scientific man, Dr King should have been beyond generalising on insufficient data. This argument Dr King has never answered. In effect Dr King has heaped up concha sions from two isolated cases. The familyhistory of one of these cases is well known to me, and, according to common report, the second case is like unto the first. Therefore, if in accordance with, scientific method, we assign to Dr King's premises a quantitative equivalent, perhaps we shall not be very far out if we write them down as 0. On 0 Dr King has built an agitation of considerable size.

As a repntedly "severe" teacher Ii used to watch each class narrowly as it came up to me from Standard IV. into Standard V. Having my "reputation 1 * foi' severity in view it seemed to me important that I should not "over-press" any pupil at the commencement of the year's work. At the same time, having regard to the exigencies of the syllabus and the annual inspector's vist, it was equally important that I should soon distinguish between what Dr Malcolm calls objective and subjective fatigue—between physiological incapacity and laziness. So, by way of " lessons," I used to begin the vear with one word of spelling per night. Next day perhaps half a dozen scholars, out of classes varying from 70 to 120, would prove unequal to the task of writing out " lessons " correctly. On the second day a dozen would be wrong. ;i the third day twenty. The application i-! the argumentum ad hominem on the fourth day would steady the gait of the "over-pressed," and so it became P ? s «< i to S radnaU y increase the amount of lessons," and at the same time hav« - them rendered correctly. Nevertheless • there was always one disquieting though* —a thought which must haunt every teacher. The question was : " Are you driving anyone who is really trying his or her best?" To do so, was, of course, ' culpable. It was homicide. An application of force or influence causing a cessation of the heart movement of a fellow mortal is possibly not the only form of tn s* sm which men call murder. The method of discriminating between hijunous driving and advantageous stimulation was ehown by Dr Malcolm on Thursday evening. The method showed how an expression of "real" fatigue in a quantitative v way might be got. It was rather sugges- ' tive of the comedian in melodrama who ' steps up in the last act with the photographic negative which settles the fortunes V ' of the villain, exclaiming, as he does so: The apparatus can't lie!" That expre*- > sion usually comes in for applause. Prob- ' ably every " apparatus" which depends far it? operation on the basic laws of energy ; will strike a responsive chord in human '' hearts—for that which we call "the heart" ' seems but an expression of energy no doubt ', co-ordinating with othtT and more appa- ! ' rent energies. Possibly the dav will come ,' when the ergograph and the aerthesiometer ] will be the principal "evidence" in the i Arbitration Court. and the "worker" will ! stand or fall in the estimation of the Judge ■ by the story which these instruments may '; tell. The number of hours he works per ; week will weigh but in the estimation of a ; hair. With those- ideas to the fore, I waited on Dr Malcolm after the lecture, and asked him to explain to me tho quantitative measurement of fatigue in language ! not too technical.

A. scientific man pauses before ho relinquishes the precise languaije of science in favor of "popular" phraseology, and Di Malcolm had to consider. Eventually be said:

It is important, in considering fatigue, to distinguish clearly between the objective and / the subjective. In the case of subjective fatigue the symptoms may be well marked, although no artualfatigue is present. The subject, thoa.->;!i feeling "tired," is physically capable of doing bis work. On the other hand, the objective phenomena of fatigue may be present, although no subjective symptoms are in evidence. A continuance of effort after a certain development of objective phenomena has occurred is calculated to lead to permanent physical deterioration in soma degree.

Yes, it is possible to determine tha amount of fatigue—fatigue considered objectively—by mechanical means, by the us« of the ergograph or the aesthesiometer, or, what would be better, by both. No ind* cation of subjective fatigue would or could be registered by these instruments. In medical text-books there is often a ohaptel ou ' Fatigue'; there is no chapter an ' Laziness.'

Would it lie possible to arrive at finality on the over-pressure question by means oi the instruments I have mentioned? Yes. Dv Mason, in suggesting the medical inspection of children in his address, which I see in to-night's 'Star,' had practically introduced that Tli© medical supervision of a school could determine whether a child was being unduly fatigued. The aesthesiometer is something like a compass. It has two metallic points, and one of those, slides on a, gauge. The subject is required to slate whether he feels ono point or tw> when the instrument is applied to the skin of a given area. In casts of objective fatigue perception i.« duller, and there murt be a wider 9epar*tiou of the points before the touch of bo& is distinctly felt. The- use <-f .the acsthesiometer would determine with some certaintv a child was being driven beyond the compass ef his natural ability ot not, but it would take tame. The child would need, *° be examined before and after school hours and on holidays, and at the beginning and end of a week. The differences woula have to be carefully noted. Could an intelligent parent, anxious to know his child's caso, use tie aesthesi--> meter succesfully?

I think so. One- of the authorities mei'. tioned in my lecture did so, and he had ' no medical training. Of course, the inetru- ': ment could not measure subjective fatigue ■ any more than it could measure hunger. Is the practice of expressing the amount : of mental operations in intelligible quaoti tative terms growing? Undoubtedly it is. Very extensive < periments on psychological phenomena ha already, been made with the ergograph, ant, no doubt the time will come when all the operations of the mind will be expressible in arithmetical terms.

- Reporter: In the case of a teacher whs was anxious to distinguish between caser or "sham" and cases of objective fatigue would he be able to do so with the aesthe. siometer?

Dr Malcolm; lea; but he would requW to know the standard for each chM in? a» normal fresh condition,