188 BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 



schools ; they pass the safety line in the demands they make upon 

 their pupils. This feeling has been so marked and wide-spread 

 that investigations have been prosecuted in Europe, and to some 

 extent in our own country, to ascertain the true condition of af- 

 fairs respecting the amount of work required of students. Thus 

 far little of definite scientific value has been attained ; but yet 

 the conviction is deepening in the public mind that education 

 is too much of a forcing process which calls upon energies that 

 should be utilized in the growth of vital organs. Physicians 

 have been urgent in their demands that the work of the schools 

 be lightened. Oppenheim 1 is unsparing in his criticism of the 

 present regime as it exists in the lower grades. Keating, 2 after 

 long experience with diseases of children, finds that many of 

 them have their origin in excessive strain incident to school 

 work, and he too insists upon reform. Examinations of the 

 school children of Germany have shown that in some instances 

 they return to their work day after day with constantly increas- 

 ing fatigue ; 3 recuperation cannot take place fully during periods 

 of release from recitation and study. While, so far as I am 

 aware, no researches of just this character have been made upon 

 fatigue in university life, yet many persons of good judgment 

 are confirmed in the belief that even here students are over- 

 worked, and suffer in consequence thereof in some such way as 

 do overtaxed children in the lower schools. 



Some effort has been made to determine the amount of study 

 which may be safely undertaken by a student at different stages 

 in his progress through the schools. It must be apparent, how- 

 ever, that it is impossible to formulate any general law respect- 

 ing this matter. Individuals differ so greatly in the amount 

 of energy which may be expended in intellectual and physical 

 activity that no rule could apply to all. Again, the kind of work 

 done and the conditions under which it is prosecuted must exer- 

 cise an important influence upon the readiness with which en- 

 ergy is expended. Some investigators are of the opinion, though, 



l Op. cit., Chapter V. 



^Mother and Child, pp. 180, 219. 2120. 



'Kraeplin: A Measure of Mental Capacity, Pop. Sci. Mo., Vol. XLIX, p. 758. 



