FATIGUE.

Evening Star, Issue 12866, 16 July 1906, Page 5

FATIGUE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Lecturers on popular scientific sabjects are always confronted with an awkward dilemma. If they simply generalise and cover a wide area without giving details, the lecture tends to be uninteresting »nd Of little practical value. On the other hand, if they enter into detail, some of their hearers are apt to bo carried away by the seeming importance of some particular scientific experiment, and may lose all sense of proportion in the contemplation of their newly-i> paired knowledge, especially if some long technical name previously unfamiliar to the au.Uencc should happen to bo introduced. This is well illustrated by the extraordinary conclusions arrived at bj r your correspondent “A.S.” He imagines that, by using a pair of ordinary compasses with blunted points and calling it an aosthesiometcr, a teacher or parent could easily arrive at reliable practical conclusions as to the extent and degree of over-pressure in the case of any given child. Ho jumps to some such conclusion from the lecture, and then seeks to confirm it by asking i)r Malcolm at the close of the lecture to further explain “ the quantitative measurement of fatigue in language not 100 technical,” What the questioner had in view was to get an expression of opinion from a scientific man in order to show that conclusions arrived at by certain other means would bo necessarily unreliable, or at least that the newly-learned method was the . ssential and proper one to use. Would that there were such .simple means at hand for summing up the complex physiological possibilities of a human brain and nervous system! We should scarcely take the trouble to recommend to teachers the training of their general powers of observation in order to safeguard their pupils if the simple testing of a sensory nerve would tell aU that it was necessary to know in regard to the effects of over-pressure on the organism as a whole. It would be quite as justifiable to assert that because a single note can be sounded with a tuning fork that therefore there can he no use in the world for wouna and pianos. Xo ; a trained scientific observer an oesthesiometer will tell one thing—-viz., the distance to which two points have to be separated in order to give the sensation of double contact; but there are many fallacies to contend with even to reach this s | m P* e R oa J i n a reliable wav. When in charge of the Wellington Hospital pontoon years ago I made extensive investigations rnCcUis of zin in coiiu<;c* tmn with sensory disturbances . resulting from injuries and diseases of nerves, aud [ found the fallacies extremely difficult to

‘v-m-rome. There is no instnunent in common use Igr doctors in' connection with wuu,u one unds a more general consensus of opinion as to fallibility of results. Almost every great specialist on nervous diseases has sounded his particular not of warning when writing op the subject. Even Herbert Spencer was beguiled into enter kj Putting trust in aesthesiometer records and inferences.

However, when all allowances arc made, the aesthosiometer is a valuable aid to scientific investigation, though I am not inclined think that it would prove of much practical service to the teacher, even when ho had learned to use it properly. If he had plenty of time at his disposal, ana wished to make a special investigation into the question of fatigue in school children, the aesthesiometer would bo one of his sources of information, and the ergograph would be another; hut your correspondent is very far astray when he W gmes that an aesthosiometer would enable him to discriminate between feigned and real fatigue in the case of school children, f i a 1 would soon appreciate the AM* th , e way * et off work to say that only one contact was felt instead rLJIni ih f ,nco "»g i Wy lazy boy would certainly welcome the aesthosiometer. Ihe simple line of observation and training which I recently sketched in vour \ s . tko «» for the teacher to xouow. It has since been endorsed bv Dr Mason, and accords with the advice of tlie greatest living authority,on the subjectwz., Dr Francis Warner— whose experionce “ based on the observation of over a hundred thousand school children. Drs Pakes > in their,book on bchool Hygiene, give on excellent description of the various processes which have been employed by scientific investigators, including the use of aesthesiometer th^? e rf P w €tC '* aad the y Dion point out Sf Wlth . hia ““bmed tests, has attacked the subject from a wider standpoint. I think that the following passage from Drs Hope and Edgar Brown m their School Hygiene’ should servo to broaden out your correspondent’s conception of the needs of growing school chU-

UVU crat l ov<ir -prcssnre entails fj?., uro j 6O reac j l tho potentiality of the bodily and mental strength in any given child, and is duo not to one cause, but to the action of a number of small influences aerting in combination in a direction that makes for ill, and a concurrent amission of those influences which should in the course of nature be allowed to make for perfect development. The wise teacher ■wall bear m mind that he may aggravate or counteract the evil influences iAj “"hygienic home surroundings, or a bad dietary, Ho will mistrust the artificial routine of educational systems and apport.on his tasks to the development of his pupih Ho will study tho causes that tend to the promotion and growth of the young ‘^"f 1 '’“wed frankly as a young animal f. Kwh ° 1)0 from his course by the temptation of successes at examinations or the cheap applause of ignorant and exigoant parents. He will find he needs little beyond a steady first-hand observation of children for tho means of acquiring the necessary facts, and little beyond common sense and a moderate degree of mventmn in devising methods for tho attainment of his object. But he must, above all Dungs, begin with an open mind, and resolutely put aside all pedagogic prejudices, and remember that; natuie never omits to call for the payment of a debt, only unfortunately sh© is not always certain to call upon the true borrower. The sms of the fathers are visited on tho childron and so also, unfortunately, are those of tho schoolmaster.”

If this does not seem scientific enough, Dr Scriptures book on ‘The New PsycW logy will furnish all the information that any reader will be likely to want as to tho use ot precise scientific instruments and tlie kind of help they are capable of affording m testing the nervous system and its functions. Iho book is an excellent one of some 500 pages, and we welcomed it when was published nine years ago, bub I think that the comment on the title made tl*o time in the ‘ Journal of .Mental Science ’ is almost as applicable to-day as when it was written: —“Dr Scripture’s book errs, if anything, in being too previous, and its title is more attractive than correct. We are of opinion that there is not enough material at present on which to build a ‘now psychology,’ and hardly sufficient to forecast one.” If the conditions of education were made reasonably healthful, and parents were wise enough to limit evening work to an hour and a-hali, very few boys or girls would call for anxiety on the part of teachers in regard to health. Concerning my address at the Otago Educational Institute, after speaking for more than two hours and a-half my lantern slides were all shown, and I was not prepared to speak furtuer, but offered to explain anything that might have been obscure, sliould any teacher care to see me after the meeting dispersed.—l am, etc., I'. Taonv King. July 16.