2t 
favourable as the blood is poisoned by the products of fatigue, 
and the energy of the nervous system consumed.” Several other 
Alpinists agreed that the last part of an ascent was the least 
distinctly remembered. 
Yawning, which is caused by temporary anzemia of the brain, 
is another sign of approaching fatigue. 
Aphasia.—The loss of memory for words is called Aphasia, 
and this certainly comes on quickly in fatigue. Especially have 
I noticed this sign of exhaustion in surgeons after an anxious 
operation. 
In this discursive paper on a fascinating subject, I have 
drawn illustrations from many sources. The names of two great 
British scientists have been mentioned,—Sir James Paget and 
Charles Darwin, men differing as widely in mental and physical 
type as in their methods of work ; the one able to persevere in his 
work well into the night, with little or no sign of exhaustion ; the 
other, almost at the commencement of his career, became a 
victim to early fatigue when working, and this followed him right 
through his life. But this weakness, though it severely handi- 
capped him, was not permitted to stop his work. The inquisitive- 
ness of Charles Darwin’s mind was a passion which overcame all 
difficulties. He has set the scientific world a glorious example 
of a struggle carried on day after day to the very end. 
Before he was thirty, when he returned from his voyage 
round the world, his health failed so rapidly that he had to 
abandon London for the quietude of a tiny village, and here, at 
Down, though his progress was dogged at almost every step by 
his ever present enemy—fatigue, he plodded on most bravely. 
His son, Francis Darwin, has told us that he was so much of an 
invalid that he could scarcely even receive his friends in his quiet 
country house because, every time he made the attempt, the 
excitement or fatigue he experienced brought on chills or nausea. 
Yet this man, in the language of an admiring physiologist has, 
with his simple country life, his garden and his books as his only 
occupation, inspired philosophy with new life, and fertilized all 
the knowledge of our day. 
In the little village of Down, in the shade of the tall trees 
surrounding his house, he thought out and brought to a 
triumphant conclusion his self-imposed gigantic task. 
Shortly after his return from his voyage round the world, 
Darwin wrote thus to Lyall: “* My father scarcely seems to expect 
that I shall become strong for some years. It has been a bitter 
disappointment to me to digest the conclusion that the race is for 
the strong, and that I snall probably do little more but be 
content to admire the strides others make in science.” Later on 
he wrote to Lyall, “I am coming into your way of only working 
about two hours at a spell. I then go out and do my business in 
