PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 21 



in our own Club we may be able to get along without this 

 increase, especially if we can raise our numbers again to our 

 full complement ; but I fear that we shall not be able to afford 

 any more of the thick volumes which we published in some 

 past years of plenty. The subscriptions to the Linnean and 

 some other Societies have also been raised. From experiments 

 it would seem that industrial fatigue plays a considerable part 

 in production, and that the output per hour is distinctly 

 higher when the period of work is shorter, unless of course 

 the worker limits his output to a fixed amount, in which case 

 the amount is probably well within the margin of his powers, 

 whether the hours of work be long or not. By the elimination of 

 wasteful effort which has been found practicable in certain 

 manufactures and trades the amount of work done has been 

 greatly increased. Thus it is stated that the number of 

 separate actions required to lay a brick have been reduced 

 from 18 to 5, and the output thereby increased from 120 per 

 man per hour to 350. How much special training an ordinary 

 bricklayer would require to do this, I do not know. Two 

 things are being urged forward in certain quarters; but I do 

 not myself see the necessity for them or any great advantage. 

 The first is that the hours of the day should be numbered from 

 1 to 24, as in astronomy, in which case all our clocks would 

 require serious alterations. The second is that the calendar 

 should be altered so that the same calendar should be correct 

 for every year. This it is proposed to effect by a variety of 

 methods; but it would be necessary that one day, or in Leap year 

 two days, should be left out of the calculation, which seems 

 very unsatisfactory; and the advantages, if any, are very small 

 and not worth the general upsetting of all our ideas on the 

 subject. The war has brought many changes, social and 

 otherwise, and a great deal of unrest and discontent, especially 

 amongst those who have benefited most by them. As regards 

 our Club, we have suffered, as was almost unavoidable, by the 

 loss of members by resignation; but we are gradually getting 

 up our numbers, and shall I hope in a few years again reach 

 our maximum. 



