The Press., 1907-10-02
TIME TO QUIT WORK,
Fatigue Symptoms and Tests
That Should Be+Heeded.
NATURE GIVES THE WARNING

Tomorrow's Work Will Suffer If You
Overdrive Today-The Price Mar
Is Compelled to Pay If He Keeps on
the Pressure Too Long.
When we have set out on "a piece OF
muscular work or head work. we might
expect to find a steady, regular in
crease in the fatigue that resulted
from it-so much work, sot much ia
tigue. But that Is not the case. The
fatigue curve" is not a straight line
sloping up from one corner OF the
chart diagonally to the other. Instead
it goes sharply upward at the start
Then for a long distance 1t runs along
on an approximate level, and then, II
takes a sharp upward turn again.
The level stage-the plateau of hard
normal working power, where ,the cost
in energy doesn't varyI percepttbly-is
the second wind"
| You know how 1t istin long distance
running. At first thetfatigue Increases
very rapidly. A mani has to push him
self with all the VIII power he can
muster. Then all Of sudden. it gets
easier. 1t seems astif he had tapped
big, new supply Of energy, and he
can keep running for long time with
| out any great increase in his feeling
| of fatigue. At last he reaches "a point
where the exertion tells hard again
Fatigue piles up terribly fast now, SO
| fast that unless the runner knows just
how much he Is good for and has made
careful calculations he is likely to be
'all in" before he gets to the end.
Every step makes an inroad on his re-
serve energy. The last squirt costs
more than all the rest together.
If a man has covered his distance
without touching this final turn Of the
fatigue curve he will get rested In a
reasonably short time, and\ be able to
go over the course again. But IL in
stead he has to keep ION, teeth set, eyes
bulging, "hugging his corncobs" until
he rolls over on the ground, 1t may
take weeks for him to getI into good
form again. In a big race naturally
he's got to be ready to do that
There are emergencies in everybody g
life when the merely prudent thing
isn't the right thing. II house is on
fire and family on the top floor is in
danger and you're the only person on
the premises you can't stand calmly
aside and calculate your fatigue curve
There's necessity for Nction-at any
cost whatever, event life.
A man may have "a big proposition to
put through, some important combina-
ton to effect, new movement to get
under way. Perhaps he Is the only
person who knows the-whole situation.
Success may depend upon him. In
such q case he must let mere prudence
go by the board, and he must stand
ready to pay the.price, ttoo, when that's
called for.
But such emergencies aretnot every
day matters. Tomorrow we are go
ing to have another days business to
attend to, and the probability is that
it will be just as important as today's.
COnsequentlywe we have.no right to over
drive ourselves today for the price Of
it will be taken out tof the quality Of
tomorrow's work : We have done
enough when we have come in sight
Of that last costly lap It's the time
to quit
A great deal of interesting informa-
ton about the nature OF fatigue has
been made available through the ergo
graph, an ingenious recording appara-
tus devised by Professor Angelo Mos
so, great Italian scientist. 1t works
something iafter this fashion: You lay
your hand, back down, on a little ia
ble and to the end of one finger Is at
tached a cord which connects hori-
zontally over pulley with small
hanging weight. The motion of clos
Ing the finger lifts the weight, and as
the effort is repeated over and over
again the fatigue symptoms in the fin
ger become clear and can be observed
and recorded in detail
Now, one OF the important discover
les that Professor Mosso has made is
that IL you keep raising the weight un-
til your finger is is,exhausted 1t will take
just about two hours to rest it-that
is, In two hours you can do the same
amount of finger work k'over1again-and
the least bit more
You would imagine from this that II
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end of one hour instead of two you
could do just half the amount of work.
But it's only one-quaNer as much!
That's the price of, work on top OF
fatigue. One unfatigued man is to his
work as four semifaigued men to the
same work. Using all the strength
you have, you can't begin to get nor
NAL results, and the, strain on will and
nervous energy is terrific. Carrying a
thing through on f'nerve"t is the cost
liest business a man can indulge in.
Some people, especially those of
nervous makeup, find t hard to tell
when the stopping point has been
reached-that Is, just where the divid-
ing line comes between energy funds
available for investment and a capital
which cannot legitfmately be tamper-
ed with. If they get interested in
their work they lose sight of every
thing else and are going. on sheer
nerve before they re-iz1o
Though fatigue symptoms vary
greatly in different people, it may be
worth while to mention a few Of them
here. Sometimes there is a flushing
at the temples. That is the case with
myself when I have been reading hard
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