THURSDAY, JUNE s, 1919. 



NATURE 



261 



■ INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY. 

 (i) The Human Machine and Industrial Efficiency. 



By Prof. F. S. Lee. Pp. viii + 119. (New 



York and London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 



1918.) Price 55. net. 

 (2) The New Physiology, and Other Addresses. 



By Dr. J. S. Haldane. Pp. viii+156. 



(London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 



Price 85. 6d. net. 

 (1) PJURING the last few years the importance 

 ■*-^ of the scientific study of industrial effi- 

 ciency and fatig-ue has gradually become more 

 and more recognised, and Prof. Lee's book on 

 the subject comes at a very opportune moment. 

 Prof. Lee speaks with authority, not only by 

 reason of his physiological investigations on 

 fatigue, but also because of the inquiries which he 

 and his colleagues have recently been making 

 into the efficiency and fatigue of certain of the 

 munition workers of the United States. The 

 book does not aim at a complete presentment of 

 the subject, but summarises the main conclusions 

 which should be drawn in the light of recent re- 

 search. These conclusions are very clearly stated 

 in non-technical language, and it is to be hoped 

 that the book will find its way into the hands of 

 many captains of industry in this country as well 

 as in America. A careful study could not fail to 

 impress them with the practical importance of the 

 subject, for it is one which concerns the employer 

 no less than the employed. 



Prof. Lee claims that the efficiency of the 

 worker must be studied on lines dictated by 

 physiological principles, and that a science of 

 industrial physiology must be developed in which 

 the laboratory for investigation is chiefly the fac- 

 tory and the workshop. Here, by suitable 

 observation and experiment, it will be possible to 

 ascertain, for instance, the length of the working 

 day which offers the best conditions for maximum 

 production in various industries. The evidence 

 so far available points to the eight-hour day as 

 being the most suitable in many types of labour, 

 but this period does not necessarily apply to other 

 industries in which the conditions of work have 

 not been investigated. Other inquiries are being 

 made into the suitability of workers for different 

 types of work, and the physical strength of vari- 

 ous groups of munition workers has been deter- 

 mined by exact tests. It may surprise some of 

 those who suggest the equality of men and 

 women in industry to learn that the average 

 industrial woman has less than half the strength 

 of the average industrial man. Other chapters in 

 the book deal with rest periods, overtime, acci- 

 dents, night work, and the welfare and feeding of 

 the worker. Again, the question of "scientific 

 management " is debated, and its excellences and 

 defects are pointed out. It will be. evident, there- 

 fore, that the book touches on all the main ques- 

 tions relating to industrial efficiency. 

 NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 



(2) In "The New Physiology" Dr. J. S. 

 Haldane has collected six addresses which have 

 been delivered by him during the last few years 

 before the British Association and other learned 

 societies. They deal, for the most part, with his 

 views on mechanistic and vitalistic hypotheses of 

 physiological processes and of the constitution of 

 living matter. He maintains that physical and 

 chemical explanations cannot be accepted, even 

 as a working hypothesis, and he regards them 

 as "probably the most colossal failure in the 

 whole history of modern science." He is like- 

 wise unable to accept the existence of a specific 

 vital force, but he propounds other views the 

 tenor of which may be gathered from a few 

 quotations. "The structure and activity of an 

 organism are no mere physical structure and 

 activity, but manifestations of life." Again: 

 "The idea of life is just the idea of life. One 

 cannot define it in terms of anything simpler, 

 . . . but each phenomenon pf life, whether mani- 

 fested in 'structure,' or in 'environment,' or in 

 ' activity,' is a function of its relation to all the 

 other phenomena. . . . Life is a whole which 

 determines its parts." 



Dr. Haldane rightly points out that a living 

 organism forms itself and keeps itself in working 

 order and activity. It always tends to maintain 

 a "normal " condition, though subjected to con- 

 siderable differences of environment, such as the 

 composition of the food it feeds on and the air 

 it breathes. But wherein do these views, and 

 those just quoted, constitute a " New Physio- 

 logy "? It seems improbable that they have 

 sufficient novelty of outlook and value as a work- 

 ing hypothesis to induce physiologists to re- 

 nounce what Dr. Haldane admits to be still the 

 orthodox mechanistic creed. 



In an address on the relation of physiology to 

 medicine Dr. Haldane urges the importance of 

 our regarding physiology, anatomy, pathology, 

 and pharmacology as the future basis of practical 

 medicine. He points out that if medicine is not 

 grounded on these sciences it is bound to become 

 more and more an anachronism. The preliminary 

 sciences must guide the medical man at every 

 step, and their investigation must not merely be 

 relegated to special laboratories, but be prose- 

 cuted at the bedside. 



SOLAR THERMODYNAMICS. 

 A Treatise on the Sun's Radiation and other Solar 

 Phenomena in Continuation of the Meteoro- 

 logical Treatise on Atmospheric Circulation and 

 Radiation, 1915. By Prof. Frank H. Bigelow. 

 Pp. ix + 385. (New York: John Wiley and 

 Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 

 1918.) Price 235. net. 



PROF. BIGELOW'S treatise is a work to 

 approach with circumspection. On p. 245 

 we read: "The formulas of chap. i. should be 

 kept continually in mind, especially in respect of 

 the fact that no term can change without drawing 



