106 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it. I convey you to X Street, where at another work-table sits a 



microscope-maker. He is accurately adjusting an objective of high 

 power. What is he ? Like the user of the microscope just mentioned, 

 he requires the utmost delicacy of touch, the highest manipulative 

 skill. Like the microscopist, also, his brain performs the essential part 

 of the task. But you will probably call him a hand- worker or muscle- 

 worker, because he is a mechanic ! 



Surely, then, we must admit that there is no hard and fast bound- 

 ary between the brain-worker and the muscle-worker. There is no 

 muscle-work without brain-work ; there is little brain-work of a high 

 order without muscle-work. 



There are, however, gradations. There are kinds of muscle-work, 

 so simple, so monotonous or uniform in their character, that they are, 

 with very little practice, performed automatically, with no conscious 

 effort of the brain. Such, for instance, is the work of the agricultural 

 laborer in digging, mowing, thrashing, etc., or of the hodman carrying 

 bricks and mortar up a ladder. All such work, it is generally found, 

 can be performed by means of machinery. Perhaps this may enable 

 us to find a definition, or rather a limit, for muscle-work. 



I must now ask what classes of society can rank as brain-workers. 

 Dr. Beard seems to include here, clergymen, lawyers, physicians, mer- 

 chants, scientists, and men of letters. He does not make any mention 

 of artists, teachers of different branches of knowledge, manufacturers, 

 etc. Now, if the merchant, the man who distributes, fetches, and car- 

 ries, is to rank as a brain-worker, surely must the producer, who much 

 more frequently originates out of his own mind something new to the 

 world. We may also ask, Does the term merchant include the retail 

 dealer, the clerk, and the commercial assistant? If so, we find the 

 brain-working class re-enforced by a number of persons who certainly 

 have little need for muscular exertion, but little also for brain-work, 

 and many of whose tasks and duties might be performed by machinery. 

 Again, where are we to place the speculator, the gambler, and the 

 forger ? Muscle- workers they are only to a very small extent, though 

 the forger requires a wonderful amount of manipulative skill. He 

 must, however, be regarded as a doomed species, since the Nesbit j>at- 

 ent safety-check carries in it the germs of his destruction. 



It becomes very difficult to say with accuracy who are to be classed 

 as brain-workers and who as muscle-workers, and, still more, who are to 

 be referred to Dr. Beard's third class, " those who follow occupations 

 that call both muscle and brain into exercise." This class, as I have en- 

 deavored to show, includes almost every one who works at all. Until 

 we are able to furnish a correct classification of mankind as brain- ' 

 workers and muscle-workers, it will be very difficult to enunciate any 

 true and valuable proposition concerning either group. 



Twenty years ago, Dr. Beard laid down among others the follow- 

 ing set of propositions : That the brain-working classes clergymen, 



