428 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—#™*. 
basis of individual or national trade activity, but it creates certain values which can, 
viewed in perspective, guide the action of the executive in determining what may be 
safely undertaken in the immediate future. 
Trade barometers do not weaken or render unnecessary administrative capacity. 
The responsibility of management is not lessened by the fact that the executive has 
at his disposal statistical charts or curves. He must still depend for his success on 
the capacity to size up the situation and act wisely and promptly. In the largely 
unconscious training which goes to form this capacity the statistical records and 
movements given by trade barometers are of very great value; but it would be 
dangerous to use such barometers to determine policy exclusively. 
Examination of the results obtained by American forecasting agencies with 
reference to the trade crises which have taken place since the conclusion of the war 
serves to show that reliance on the trade barometer would be productive of almost 
as much error as a complete lack of confidence in it. By the test of results trade 
forecasting has not been particularly successful; by the test of education and of 
economic knowledge trade forecasting and trade barometers have justified themselves. 
It is dangerous, however, to believe that a mere accumulation of curves and statistics 
can take the place of executive vision or acute intuition. 
Tuesday, September 29. 
Discussion on The Physiology and Psychology of Work : Physique, Posture 
and Environment in relation to Work. (Chairman: Air Vice-Marshal 
Sir Davip Munro, K.C.B. Mr. T. C. ANeus; Herr EpGar ATZLER ; 
MM. R. BonwarveEL and Henri Laucier; Prof. KE. P. Catucart, 
C.B.E., F.R.S. ; Dr. C. 8. Myers, C.B.E...F.R.S.; Dr. H. M. Vernon; 
Mr. D. R. Witson.) 
Mr. T. C. Aneus. 
What proof have we that poor ventilation reduces industrial efficiency ? Two 
analogies from the senses of sight and hearing. 
Examples. 
Examples of Kata-measurements in industry ; suggested and existing means to 
rectify bad conditions. 
Recent advances in Kata-thermometry. 
The new high-temperature Kata and its uses. The reduction of its readings into 
the terms generally understood by means of a nomograph. 
How Factory Ventilation differs from the Ventilation of Crowded Buildings. 
The heat and moisture given off by persons. 
American example. 
Herr EnGar ATZLER. 
Physical efficiency is dependent to a considerable extent upon the condition of 
the circulation, and particularly of the heart. In order to test the human heart, 
use is made of the fact that the capacity of a condenser, in addition to the surface 
and the distance between the plates, depends upon the dielectric constant of the 
intermediate medium. The capacity varies proportionately to the volume of a 
substance of a different dielectric constant brought into the condenser field. As 
the heart expands and contracts in a space of divergent dielectric constant, i.e. the 
air-containing lung, the possibility is provided of constantly recording the volume 
of the heart and its changes. With the aid of an ultra-short wave transmitter Aizler 
and Lehmann induced an oscillating circuit between the,condenser plates, on which 
is placed the thorax of the person being tested. The intensity of the co-vibrations 
is measured by rectification, amplification and induction on a recording instrument 
(Dielectrograph). The curves obtained, and which should also be of interest to clinics, 
contain a number of details regarding the action of the heart. A particularly 
important factor in deciding the efficiency of the heart appears to be the altered 
filling mechanism in transition from the horizontal to the vertical. 
lt a Male 
