310 



TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION I. 



plans of the Continuation Classes are run in the same way. Not merely subjects 

 of trade or industrial progress being introduced, but so as to help forwards the 

 slow imagination of the country dwellers and by. variety prevent that weariness 

 of learning which always falls on those who have worked hard and been meagrely 

 fed all their lives. Thus the system in Denmark contributes a factor towards the 

 solution of educational fatigue — viz. nerve stimulation. 



Another factor of educational fatigue is any strained position of sitting, 

 especially in the case of working men and women whose muscles are not elastic. 

 The meeting halls of the Danish villages provide against this by the adaptation 

 of their chairs to adult needs. I shall not say. anything as regards the advan- 

 tages of full ventilation or freedom from the noxious fumes of carbon dioxide 

 due to unhygienic stoves, for this is well known to be a great cause of educa- 

 tional fatigue so far as physiology is concernedj but I may add that I have 

 known of very good village schools inspected by the authorities of England 

 and passed as satisfactory which were far from sanitarj'. in these matters. The 

 fact is educational fatigue is passing all over our country except for money- 

 making projects, and this is the cause of mental slowness and want of fore- 

 sight in many classes. We all need the tonic stimulant of imaginations made 

 vivid by fuller courses of study, and this can never be achieved in villages 

 unless the Danish meeting halls with their steps upwards to the peasant — 

 Universities and broader views of education — are encouraged amongst us. 



To reconstruct England these halls are needed unless all the great scheme 

 of the new Education Acts is not to be thrown away so far as the countrj'side 

 is concerned. 



Measurement of the Energy Output of ' Heavy Workers ' {Dock 

 Labourers). By A. D. Waller, M.D., F.R.S. {With 

 Demonstration). 



The most convenient and expeditious method of measuring the output of 

 mechaiiicai energy taking place in the course of muscular work is to take 

 observations at convenient intervals of the rate at which COj is expired — i.e., 

 to take a record of successive COa ordinates (c.c.'s CO3 per sec. for periods 

 of 30 + 2 sees.) during the working day. 



B. Piece- Work. 



A. Time-Work. 



The above are typical records taken upon a ' heavy worker ' at the East 

 Surrey Docks by courtesy of the Port of London Authority — A of an average 

 day's work (laying of a concrete pavement) by a first-rate labourer on time 

 pay ; B of an extra heavy day's work by the same labourer (coaling) on 

 piece-work pay, of which the conditions are such as to s€cuje maximum 



