September 30, 1922] 



NA TURE 



453 



fluctuations. Until the natural fluctuations in fish 

 population are adequately understood, their limits 

 determined, and the causes which give rise to them 

 discovered, a trustworthy verdict as to the effect of 

 fishing is difficult to obtain. 



If such problems as these are to be solved the in- 



vestigation of the sea must proceed on broadly con- 

 ceived lines, and a comprehensive knowledge must I le 

 built up, not only of the natural history of the fishes, 

 but also of the many and varied conditions which 

 influence their lives. The life of the sea must be 

 studied as a whole. 



The Efficiency of Man and the Factors which influence it. 1 

 By Prof. E. P. Cathcart, M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S. 



THE subject of my address — the efficiency of the 

 human organism and the factors which influence 

 this efficiency — is. in my opinion, one of the most 

 important problems of the present day. It is a 

 problem which cannot, however, be considered only 

 from its physiological aspect if it is to receive adequate 

 consideration ; its implications are much wider, 

 reaching right down to the very basis of our daily lives. 

 As I am no expert in industry or economics, I shall 

 confine my attention so far as possible to the problem 

 from the physiological side, and leave to others the 

 sociological application. 



The term " efficiency " has become a mere catch- 

 word, bandied about by people who have not the 

 faintest idea of what the word connotes. Practically 

 it has come to mean, to the average man in the street, 

 the mythical improvement which is to lie anticipated 

 from some change in workshop or office organisation — 

 a bigger and better result at a smaller cost. The word 

 has a very definite meaning in engineering science, 

 and this meaning has been transferred from the in- 

 animate machine to the living organism. In the case 

 of the engine, the problem is relatively simple, as the 

 number of interfering factors is not great, but the 

 solution of the problem in the case of the organism is 

 beset with many difficulties, as the interfering factors 

 are numerous and varied. Two types of efficiency are 

 spoken of in connexion with the animal body. One 

 type is the mechanical efficiency in the engineering 

 sense, i.e. the ratio which exists between the heat 

 equivalent of the external muscle work done and the 

 energy output of the subject during the performance 

 of the work in question. This is a problem which has 

 attracted many workers, and there seems to be a 

 general consensus of opinion that the efficiency of man 

 in the performance of external work is about 20 per 

 cent, gross and 25 per cent. net. The other type of 

 efficiency is that which is called industrial or productive 

 efficiency, where the capacity of the individual to per- 

 form effective work is dealt with, judging the capacity 

 of the individual by. for example, his output in unit 

 time. So far as the worker himself is concerned, the 

 whole object in industrial efficiency is undoubtedly to 

 get the greatest output with the minimum of effort. 

 The determination of the mechanical efficiency is fairly 

 readily carried out, but it is very difficult to get an 

 accurate gauge of the industrial efficiency. At bottom 

 they are closely related, and both are physiological 

 problems. 



The leaders of industry have not been slow to accept 

 and utilise the gains of science in the realm of inanimate 



*' From the presidential rered to Section I (Physiology) of 



the British Association at Hull on Sept. 8. 



NO. 2761, VOL. I io] 



tiling.-, but they have been slow to recognise the fact 

 that there is a science of physiology which deals with 

 the man who controls the productive machinery. New 

 inventions may completely revolutionise shop equip- 

 ment, good machines may be replaced by better, and 

 better by still better, but man remains almost as im- 

 mutable as the ages. Physiological evolution is 

 infinitely slow, and man has not yet become "an 

 affectionate machine-tickling aphid.'' 



It is but a little more than a hundred years since 

 this country was industrialised, and we are still reaping 

 the aftermath of the terrible conditions which then 

 reigned, when the great centres of industry were 

 swamped with country dwellers who poured into the 

 towns in the race for wealth. Few realise the hope- 

 lessly unphysiological conditions which developed in 

 the methods of work, the hours and conditions of work. 

 the housing. The following citation from Robert 

 Owen gives a good idea of the conditions ruling in the 

 early years of last century in one of our staple in- 

 dustries : " In the manufacturing districts it is common 

 for parents to send their children of both sexes at 

 seven or eight years of age, in winter as well as summer, 

 at six (/clock in the morning, sometimes, of course, 

 in the dark, and occasionally amidst frost and snow, 

 to enter the manufactories which are often heated to 

 a high temperature, and contain an atmosphere far 

 from being the most favourable to human life, and in 

 which all those employed in them very frequently 

 continue until twelve o'clock at noon, when an hour is 

 allowed for dinner, after which they return to remain. 

 in a majority of cases, till eight o'clock at night." Six 

 till eight, with a break of one hour : a fourteen hours' 

 day, and fifteen was not unknown. Owen, in the 

 article from which I have quoted, was petitioning 

 Parliament, asking what ? That a twelve hours' day 

 be instituted, to include one and a half hours for meals, 

 ami that no child should be employed until tin 

 ten was reached. He pointed out in the course of the 

 article that the results from the manufacturers' point 

 of view would be better with a twelve hours' day (i.e. 

 that the industrial efficiency, in modern words, would 

 be improved). 



Yet we wonder that the offspring of stock descended 

 from workers under these conditions, which certainly 

 improved as the century advanced, but were far from 

 ideal, gave the high yield of C'3 lads recorded in the 

 National Service Report. We might have been pre- 

 pared for the disclosure, as the pre-war records of 

 countries with conscription showed that the number 

 of rejections for the Army of town and factory workers 

 was far in excess ot those for men drawn from country 

 districts. But evidence of the state of the national 



