

258 THE HUMAN MOTOR 



190. The Influence of an Acoustic Field : Sounds, Noises. The 

 influence of sounds on man's labour is allied to that of rhythm 

 and cadence. There is no doubt that our muscles exert their 

 activity in a rhythmical fashion, and that such is essentially the 

 method of nervous action. 



The cadence of sounds, harmony and music, have rules analo- 

 gous to those of poetry, and their influence is of the same nature. 

 There is nothing more interesting than to follow the role of the 

 melody of rhyme in the numerous forms of human labour, at all 

 epochs, in all civilisations and at every age f 1 ). According to 

 whether the cadence is slow or rapid, it accelerates or retards the 

 pace of the soldier or the movements of the workman. A gay, 

 quick tune enlivens a column of soldiers ; a slow, heavy sound 

 leads to sadness and drowsiness. A whole workshop stops 

 working at the rolling of the drums of a funeral. Every kind of 

 activity has its own cadence. There is that of sawyers, who 

 work a double handed saw, in a certain rhythm ; there is the 

 cadence of the blacksmith's hammer, which allows two men 

 to strike alternately on the anvil without hitting each other or 

 getting in each other's way ; whereby the speed and the quantity 

 of labour is increased. Further, there is the rhythm of the 

 carpenter using a plane, of even the writer, in the manual sense 

 of the word, of the orator, tc. Song, melody, or a refrain add 

 very often to the rhythm of the tool ; the words are unimportant ; 

 the rhythm to which the worker attaches in a way the thread 

 of his activity is the only thing that counts. Foremen can 

 judge of the intensity of their workmen's labour by the sounds 

 of the tools. What more pleasing allegory than that of the walls 

 of Jericho falling at the sound of the trumpet or that of the walls 

 of Thebes rising at the accents of the musician-poet, Amphion ! 



The musical intervals, according to whether they are con- 

 sonant or dissonant, stimulate or retard the labour measured 

 by the ergograph. Major keys are better than minor keys ; 

 the major sixth giving the greatest stimulus. ( 2 ) Rhythm leads 

 to a greater accuracy of movement, to an increased output of 

 work, and to a better utilisation of force. Is it necessary to say 

 that the silence of the workmen, which characterises English 

 workshops, is more advantageous in this respect than any songs 



( l ) See a curious book by Karl Biicher, Arbeit und Rythmus, Leipzig, 1909. 

 The author discusses the role of rhythm in human activity through the ages 

 and in different countries ; it is a compilation of all the melodies, poetry 

 and pieces of music which have been used or are still used in the muscular 

 and intellectual labour of man. 



(*) F6r6 et Mme. Jaell (Comptes Rendus Biologic, 1902, passim ; F6r< 

 Travail et Plaisir (loc. cit.). A nervous excitation acting on a muscle can, 

 in certain cases, be reinforced by a sound. This reinforcement is the 

 Bahnung of the Germans. (See Yerkcs, Pfluger's Archiv., vol. cxvii.. p. 207, 

 1905). 



