Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-08-07
MENTAL FATIGUE.
Prof. O'Shea Contributes an Elaborate
Article on This Subject.

Appleton's Popular Science Month
ly for August contains an elaborate
yet somewhat technical article on Men
tai Fatigue by Prof. M. V. O'Shea Of
Madison, in which special attention is
paid to the primary function of the
nerve cell. The writer gives the re-
suits of many experiments made with
children. Every one" he says,
must have seen children, and adults
as well, who when they hear a slight
noise, for instance, which others do not
mind, react with great vigor by jump
ing or screaming; or, when spoken to
Unexpectedly the face Pushes, the lip
quivers, and they become physically
uncontrolled in a measure. In these
instances the persons are unduly pro-
figate in the expenditure of their
means, and, in consequence, their
capital is relatively soon exhausted.
The writer last year conducted some
experiments upon school children
which yielded results that appear to
confirm the view here set forth.
Scriptures steadiness gauge was used
in one test. This is designed to in
vestigate stability of control by re-
curing person to direct light rod
under guidance of the eye upon a point
several feet distant, failure to accom-
plish this being announced by the
ringing of an electric bell. The sub
ject is usually required to make the
trial fifteen times at single test, and
the number of successful attempts is
taken to be in way, although not al
ways reliable, an index to his power of
coordination. But more important
than the success or failure in accom-
plishing the task is the index it af-
fords of the nervous condition of the
subject as revealed in the expressions
of face and body. Tests were made in
the morning, shortly following the
opening of school, and again at half
past eleven o'clock, or Whereabouts,
after the pupils had been working over
their lessons for about two hours.
One boy of eleven years, A. M, is
fair illustration of what might not in
appropriately be called an exhaustive
type, wherein nervous energy is readl-
ly depleted because of incessant waste.
In the morning tests he was well con-
trolled and accurate A record Of five
tests made at half past eleven all show
that after four or five attempts to
place the rod upon the point the hand
became very unsteady, the lips COM
pressed, the region about the eyes
showed unusual constraint, and the
hand not being used was tightly
clinched. Ten trials were usually
sufficient to produce twitchings or tics
in the face and body, although nothing
of this was ever noticed at other times.
This boy invariably made hard work
of the task, and all the physical ac-
compartments indicated excessive mo-
tor stimulation following, of course,
upon an unduly excited condition OF
the cerebral cells. At the close Of the
experiments he generally seemed ex-
hausted, and upon three occasions 1t
was thought best not to permit him to
make the entire fifteen trials. An
other pupil, W. r., two years younger,
illustrates a different type. In the
A. NJ, but he, too, was subjected to five
different tests at half past eleven, with
the result that he could in every in
stance complete the task without any
apparent fatigue. There was no
constraint apparent in the face or
hands, no unusual effort to co-ordi-
nate the muscles Of the body, and
10 liz +
seems probable that in the case of w.
R. the brain was able to adjust effort
in right degree to the needs Of the oc-
casion, while with A. M. there was
such prodigality in the expenditure OF
energy in various irrelevant motor
tensions and activities that it not only
defeated it's purpose, but it was soon
largely spent. A. M. showed this ten
dency to nervous extravaganza in all
the work of the school. While an un-
usually bright boy, he yet became IA
tigued in the performance Of duties
that w. R. could discharge with no ev-
idence of overstrain; indeed, the lat
ter boy seemed never to reach point
beyond which he could not go with
safety if he chose
Continuing Prof. O'Shea says that
the principle of healthful mental
growth and activity seems to require
that in education of any sort cerebral
cells should be freely exercised up to
thepoint of fatigue but never beyond;
for after this there is not only no pro-
gress, but what has been gained by
previous training may even be lost.
And, what is more serious, the undue
depletion of the nerve cell renders its