The Press., 1907-10-02

for two or three hours, and then I
know that l ought to call a halt.
could keep on reading with undimin.
ished interest for good deal longer,
but 1t would be at the price of a sleep
less night.
With some people sure sign is the
increased circulation of blood in the
ears or cheeks. Some people have
queer feelings in the pit of the stom-
ach-not nausea, but something sug-
gestive of 1t.
One of the most reliable tests is the
control test, holding the arms out hori-
zontally at the sides and noticing
whether or not the fingers tremble.
The fatigue condition raises the nerve
pressure gate and allows fiowovers
from one nerve into another. Normal
ly nervous impulse goes along its
nerve directly to the point Of strain,
but when you are fatigued the stimu-
lus spreads into other nerves MS well
and is not distinctly transmitted.
Sir Francis Galton, the great statis-
tician, says that the best test he knows
Is that of restlessness, shown in mus
cular movements. Many times, he
says. he has sat in a position where
he could watch an audience as 1t lis
tened to some long scientific memoir
He took notes of how people acted
under the strain of protracted atten-
tion-how often they moved. At the
beginning Of the hour they would sit
quietly; then they would begin to
move on the average Of once every
four seconds, then every three seconds,
and he says that 1t is possible to trace
right through any audience every de-
gree of fatigue by the number of mus
cular movements made.
He has simply put together mathe-
matically some data that are familiar
to all of us. We have all seen-and,
alas, been a part of-an audience that
was trying to endure the last half
hour of an uncomfortable speech. Ev-
erybody was shifting his position,
crossing one leg over the other or back
again, moving the fingers, playing with
watch charm or chain, yawning,
twitching, folding programme, wiping
eyeglasses, adjusting back hair, twist
ing mustache. Those were all fatigue
signs.
A loss Of self control in small things
that's the symptom in different terms,
and another name for 1t is irritab bility.
At first 1t seems strange that this
undue sensitiveness to slight stimuli
should be so sure an effect Of fatigue;
but 1t means that the resistance gates
are down and we become aware of
sensations pouring in from all sides,
slight sensations that ordinarily we
take no notice of because-by the laws
OF attention-they are quietly shut out
from our consciousness But when our
attention is tired-no longer focused,
but scattering these slight nerve
pricks attack us insistently and we
cannot neglect them.
A noise that you will not hear when
you are rested will be perfectly dis
tracing when you are tired. You will
go over and shut a window; you will
walk around aimlessly; you will swear
at the faint crackle of distant graphic
phone. If there is light above you
at an evening lecture 1t will hurt your
eyes almost beyond endurance. In
stead of making the nervous system a
less responsive instrument fatigue
makes 1t more responsive-more re-
sponsive, but less serviceable.
Every man who is anxious to hit his
job between the eyes should make
study of his own fatigue curve, and
he should put the moral of 1t to heart
To know when it's time to quit-and
to quit when it's time-is one of the
first lessons in the primer of ef1icien-
cy.-Dr. Luther II. Gulick In Worlds
Worly