THE QUESTION OF FATIGUE FROM THE ECONOMIC STANDPOINT. 287 



(b) How do the actions fit together into the whole operation, i.e., how 



' complex ' is the operation ? 



(c) How far are the acts similar in each recurrence of the whole 



operation, i.e., how uniform is the occupation? 



(d) How frequently does each operation recur? (The frequency is 



measurable by the average output per hour or per day.) 



(e) How periodic or regular is the frequency of recurrence of each 



operation? (The regularity is measurable by the mean devia- 

 tion from the average output per hour or day.) 



According to the characteristics elicited by the above questionnaire 

 may be classified the different occupations or crafts involved in in- 

 dustry and some estimate formed of what affections are evoked in the 

 workman by each of such classes of crafts. We shall of course 

 concentrate particularly on such as may be presumed to involve or 

 lead to fatigue. 



(a) The actions (movements and postures, mental states, &c.) 

 involved in different processes affect the psycho-physique either mus- 

 cularly or nervously. 



* Finicky ' work like tying or wrapping up packets or assembling 

 small parts tires the muscles of the hand; packing biilky goods into 

 cases or lifting and carrying heavy weights and standing up to work 

 generally tire the central muscles, and illustrations of such muscular 

 overstrain were given by Miss Anderson, the principal Lady Inspector 

 of Factories before the Departmental Committee on Physical Deteriora- 

 tion, 1904, ' where enormously heavy weights were carried by young 

 persons and by women in food-preserving works, bleach and dye works, 

 glass, earthenware and china works, and various metal trades.' 



These examples of muscular work become a ' strain ' generally 

 because the tax they impose on the body is concentrated or ' focussed ' 

 on one particular part; a part whose structure was evolved only to 

 meet the calls of every-day life. This characteristic of ' concentrative- 

 ness ' is also obviously involved in all activities calling upon the 

 central nervous system. 



Now, such activities of the central nervous system as attending, 

 controlling the muscles, making judgments, remembeiing and per- 

 ceiving (sensing and reacting) are activities often exercised in modern 

 industry. Soldering, mending, and most skilled trades, for instance, 

 exercise a judgment of ' quality ' in the sense of a comparison with a 

 standard kept in memory. Pasting on labels or cutting articles accur- 

 ately to shape involves not merely * sensitivity ' of the eyes, but the 

 'judgment of distance' and a control over muscles, and inserting 

 articles in revolving slots like the paper in a rotary litho machine 

 involves a 'judgment of time.' There is also perhaps a 'sense or 

 judgment of amounts ' which is involved where, as in the Stogey In- 

 dustry (Butler, ' Women and the Trades,' page 85), ' emphasis is placed 

 on close cutting,' and to avoid wasting an unnecessary amount of leaf 

 the rate of pay is more the more cigars are got out of the raw 

 material. Piecing up the threads of cotton in spinning, and all 

 machine-minding, whether it be the work of the machine or the 



