378 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of the body insures the reflection of injuries to the brain centers in the 

 disturbance of all other organs. 



The monotony of work is linked to the strain under which it is 

 carried on. In the knitting industry a girl now has to watch from two 

 to ten needles instead of one. In sewing shops the needles make 4,400 

 stitches a minute. The operator can tell when a needle or a thread is 

 broken or a stitch misplaced only by a variation in a beam of light 

 thrown on the needle. Constant attention to so minute a detail puts a 

 fearful strain on the eyes and nerves. In textile mills the number of 

 machines has so increased that the operator is kept always at the highest 

 rate of speed. In a large publishing house girls who bind the magazine 

 must handle 25,000 copies, each weighing three fourths of a pound, in 

 ten hours. Piece work aggravates the evil of keeping up with a 

 machine. In the millinery trade " rush work " is of a similar char- 

 acter. This speed coupled with the monotony of doing the same opera- 

 tion repeatedly brings about nervous exhaustion. The monotony of the 

 work exercises only little patches of the nervous system. Mental and 

 physical fatigue are closely bound together, A muscle in contracting 

 uses nitrogen and liberates a poison or toxin. Under normal condi- 

 tions this toxin is carried out of the body by way of the kidneys and 

 lungs, and is neutralized by an antitoxin. If the muscle is exercised 

 too frequently the toxins multiply faster than the ability to eradicate 

 them. The poison accumulates and the muscle becomes fatigued. 

 Further work is performed at the expense of the will, which puts a 

 drain on the nervous system. Fatigue may go to the point of exliaus- 

 tion, and result in death by chemical self-poisoning. Normally the 

 tired body throws off the toxins during sleep and is then ready for 

 another full day's work. But if the body does not get rest, the fatigued 

 muscles on the second day can do only one half the normal amount of 

 work before again becoming fatigued. At the beginning the overwork 

 may pass unnoticed, but since fatigue is accumulative it eventually 

 results in a complete nervous breakdown, because fatigue really weakens 

 the brain centers that control the muscles, although the feeling of being 

 tired is primarily felt in the muscles themselves, "Women are predis- 

 posed to nervous trouble, and their nerves are weakened by the various 

 sex functions. Nervous tension exaggerates any bad tendencies already 

 present. The industrial woman works to the point of over-fatigue and 

 then goes home to do housework, or seeks excitement in dances and 

 shows, thus adding nerve strain to nerve strain. Sleeplessness and loss 

 of appetite follow; succeeding days of work pile up fatigue until the 

 brain cells and nerves collapse. A usual accompaniment of nerve 

 exhaustion is menstrual irregularities and poverty of the blood. The 

 constant vibration in a mill may help bring about organic troubles, 

 particularly if the organs have been weakened by other causes. The 



