INDUSTRIAL LABOUR 



459 



The explanation of this decrease in the consumption of spirits 



is to be found in the law passed 

 on December 29th, 1900, by 

 which the tax on spirits was 

 raised from 156-25 francs to 

 220 francs per hectolitre. Thus 

 legislation introduced, not from 

 motives of national hygiene, but 

 simply as a means of raising 

 revenue, has had the welcome 

 and beneficial result of decreas- 

 ing the consumption of spirits. 

 The curves in fig. 309 show the 

 variations in consumption of 

 spirits and of wine respectively 

 per head per annum in the City 

 of Troyes from the year 1885 

 to 1910. 



Statistics show that the same 



cit y oTTro s 



FIG. 309. 



Consumption in litres per head 



i the resu it h as taken place in many 

 other towns. Also, as will be 

 seen from the tables, the consumption of spirits is smaller in those 

 towns where much wine is drunk, but not in those where beer 

 and cider are the chief beverages (Dunkirk, Rennes, etc.). 



Those who are engaged in combating alcoholism can gain 

 useful practical lessons from the above data. Diminution of 

 alcoholic consumption and improvement of food hygiene are 

 vital factors in our national prosperity. 



344- Human Strength. The power which man can exert is 

 necessarily a variable quantity. The manifestations of muscular 

 activity are manifold, and its duration variable, and discon- 

 continuous. 



Under the most favourable circumstances 300,000 kilogram- 

 metres of work can be effected in a working day of 8 hoars. The 

 power per second is therefore : 

 300,000 



8X3,600 

 This is about ^ of a horse-power. 



Increase in the duration of work leads to reduced power. 

 Atwater found that the above figure could only be attained with 

 the very greatest difficulty over a period of 16 hours, and that 

 the power generally fell to T V H.P. 



In the case of an Alpinist in first-class physical condition 

 Jules Lefevre (*) calculated that he could exert as much as J H.P. 



( x ) Jules Lefevre, Bio6nerg6tique (loc. cit., p. 801). 



