ATHLETICS FOR WOMEN IN COLLEGES. 523 



and colleges work in ignorance of the needs of the brain for its 

 steadily strengthening development ? 



I was much interested to see in the October issue of the Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly a paper by Prof. Kraepelin, of Heidelberg, 

 bearing on this point. His paper reports the result of experi- 

 ments in " measuring the mental capacity of individuals." The 

 measure is afforded by determining the number of small similar 

 problems resolved by the subject in a given time such, for exam- 

 ple, as the continuous addition of a column of numbers. " Other 

 means of measuring the capacity of a subject are afforded by the 

 ease with which he is diverted from his task, or his susceptibility 

 to disturbing influences from without and within ; his elasticity, 

 or the readiness with which he recovers from the effects of fatigue 

 or diversion; and the way he is affected by taking food, physical 

 exercise, and the time he has for sleep." 



The experiment in addition, as made upon young men, showed 

 that their facility 171 addition fell off at the beginning of the sec- 

 ond hour. Experiments made by Prof. Burgerstein, of Vienna, 

 showed that a quarter of an hour of simple ivorh is enough to de- 

 velop the first signs of fatigue in a twelve-year-old pupil. 



Prof. Kraepelin claims that when fatigue "has once gained 

 the upper hand, a speedy and unintermitted decline of efficiency 

 ensues. The time when this shall take place depends on the de- 

 gree of capacity already reached, the personal peculiarity, and 

 casual influences." 



It appears from these experiments that the mental vigor of 

 most men is usually maintained at a certain height for the long- 

 est time in the forenoon. The rapidity with which one of the 

 persons experimented upon could perform his tasks in addition 

 sank about a third after a night journey by railway with insuffi- 

 cient sleep. Another experimenter could detect the effects of 

 keeping himself awake all night in a gradual decrease in vigor 

 lasting through four days. 



The paper concludes as follows : 



" When, now, we look back at the conditions we have discov- 

 ered that control mental vigor, we conclude that our children are 

 exposed by the extent and arrangement of study work in the 

 schools to great perils for their mental and physical development. 

 The questions that press upon us in this matter are of such im- 

 portance that we all have reason to give them our full, undivided 

 attention. We are only at the beginning of a real hygiene of 

 mental labor, but the results we have obtained in this research, 

 fully indicating the nature and operation of the dangers, point 

 with equal clearness to the character of the preventive and reme- 

 dial measures which should be sought and applied." 



The president of one of our great universities has been quoted 



