The Science of Labour 
 
 AND 
 
 Its Organization 
 
 BY 
 DR. JOSEFA IOTEYKO 
 
 Formerly head of the Laboratory of Psycho-Physiology at 
 Bntssels University, Laureate of the Institute 
 
 and of the Academy of Medicine 
 
 In charge of the course on "Fatigue" at the College de 
 France in 1916 
 
 The human motor and the measurement of industrial fatigue 
 Scientific management Measurement of aptitudes Anthro- 
 pological comparison of the sexes from the point of view 
 of strength and endurance Alimentation and work 
 Re-education of the left hand for the mutilated Belgian 
 methods of technical education and the University of Labour 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED 
 NEW YORK: E. P. BUTTON & CO. 
 
 1919 
 
iv. PREFACE 
 
 collected in the course of investigations of many years' 
 duration on the problem of Fatigue in the motor function . 
 
 Four problems are examined : 
 
 The first concerns the Human Motor, and here the 
 question of apprenticeship, the manner of the economic 
 working of the body, and the limits of industrial fatigue 
 form the chief part. 
 
 The second is devoted to Taylor 's System, which is so 
 much discussed at the present time. 
 
 The third relates to the relative Aptitude for Work of 
 the Right Hand and of the Left Hand, a question the 
 importance of which has become very real, on account of 
 the large numbers of men maimed in the war. We shall 
 examine in succession : the estimate of the strength, 
 and of the power of endurance of each hand, in the case 
 of man and of woman, comparatively ; we shall advance 
 a new theory of our own regarding right-handedness ; 
 we shall give some rules for the re-education of the motor 
 power of the wounded, and closely examine the process 
 of writing with the left hand. 
 
 Finally, the fourth problem deals with the Belgian 
 Methods of Technical Education. We have thought 
 that it would not be uninteresting to make these known, 
 since Belgium now occupies the foremost place in 
 productivity in proportion to her population. She 
 owes this productivity to her methods of industrial 
 and technical education. 
 
 We trust that the importance of the problems discussed 
 justify the publication of this volume and that it will 
 emphasize the interest already felt in the subject. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 PREFACE . . . iii. 
 
 I THE HUMAN MOTOR i 
 
 i. DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM .... I 
 
 2. THE PROBLEM OF APPRENTICESHIP ... 5 
 
 Importance of the psychic element. The 
 principle of the small muscles. Omer 
 Buyse's investigations. The Law of the 
 Economy of Effort by J. loteyko. 
 
 3. THE ECONOMIC METHOD OF WORKING THE BODY 12 
 
 Imbert's investigations. Haughton's 
 Fisher- women. Function of the antago- 
 nistic muscles. Adaptation of the muscles. 
 Defensive function of fatigue. In- 
 sufficiency of the defensive principle of 
 fatigue under present conditions of 
 Industrial Labour. Whence the necessity 
 for objective investigations. 
 
 4. THE MEASUREMENT OF INDUSTRIAL FATIGUE 23 
 
 The wear and tear of the body progresses geo- 
 metrically. The length of the working-day 
 should not be fixed uniformly. Fatigue is a 
 complex product.- The XIII International 
 Congress of Hygiene and Demography, held 
 in Brussels in 1903. Our plan of study. 
 Imbert's Report. Imbert's Experiments on 
 dock labourers, and those of Gauthier on 
 the wine store v.orkers. XIV Congress of 
 Hygiene and Demography held in Berlin 
 in 1907. Statistics of industrial accidents. 
 Researches by Imbert and Mestre on 
 the transport of loads. Imbert's Re- 
 searches relating to the workwomen 
 employed in the cutting of vines. A new 
 chapter in Social Medicine. 
 
vi. CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 II. THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGE- 
 
 MENT 53 
 
 i. TAYLOR'S STUDIES ON THE ORGANISATION OF 
 
 LABOUR 53 
 
 Choice of workmen. Chronographic 
 measurement of their movements. Ex- 
 amples of increased output. Study of the 
 constituents of Labour. The Human Factor 
 is by far the most important. The System 
 of Premiums. Scientific Management. 
 Scientific Organisation of Factories and of 
 the Home. 
 
 2. THE OPINION THAT SHOULD BE FORMED OF THE 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT T 76 
 
 Three great mistakes : The absence of 
 scientific information concerning the 
 fatigue of the workman, The absence of any 
 guarantee to the workman in all that 
 relates to the future, The System of 
 " Premiums " which leads to over- work, and 
 which is unsatisfactory from the moral point 
 of view. Gravity of the other objections. 
 The necessity of studying this system scien- 
 tifically from the bottom, and for not 
 applying it to the present time without great 
 caution. Difference between industrial 
 manual work and pedagogic manual 
 work. The Necessity for augmenting the 
 productivity and the well-being of the 
 Working-man. 
 
 3. THE FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOL IN THE DETER- 
 MINATION OF APTITUDES 89 
 
 The Science of the Study of the Child, or 
 Pedology. Necessity for experimental 
 measurements in the Upper Primary Schools, 
 and in the Industrial Schools. The estimate 
 of technical aptitude. The Principle of 
 the " most apt " should regulate future 
 Society. 
 
 III. POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK . 94 
 
 i. THE VALUATION OF THE POWER AND WORK 
 OF THE RIGHT-HAND, AND OF THE LEFT. 
 ANTHROPOMETRIC COMPARISON OF THE SEXES. 94 
 
 The test of strength (dynamometer), and 
 the test of endurance (ergograph). 
 
CONTENTS vii. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Dynamometric indication. Ergographic 
 i ndication . Bimanual indication . Sexu al 
 indication of strength and power of en- 
 durance. The woman's power of 
 endurance. Applications to industrial 
 work. Necessity for a selection of working 
 women . -Longevity of Woman ; Her greater 
 resistance to disease ; The Feminine Sex 
 is determined by better food conditions. 
 Woman is anabolic. Man katabolic. 
 Worms's statistics. Statistics in times 
 of war. 
 
 2. A NEW THEORY OF RIGHT-HANDEDNESS 
 
 (THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORY) . 112 
 
 Effect of work and fatigue upon the heart. 
 Woman has a more excitable heart than 
 Man. They should be spared very hard 
 work. 
 
 3. AMBIDEXTROUS EDUCATION 127 
 
 Facts and arguments in favour of a bi- 
 manual education. 
 
 4. ALIMENTATION AND WORK 131 
 
 Our experiences demonstrate the superiority 
 of vegetarians from the point of view of 
 power of resistance to fatigue when 
 working. The two meatless days are an 
 hygienic measure as well as an economic one. 
 
 5. USE OF THE LEFT HAND BY THE WOUNDED 
 AND MUTILATED (SOME SCIENTIFIC RULES FOR 
 RE-EDUCATION) 137 
 
 The necessity, among those suffering from 
 aphasia, to develop a new centre of language 
 by means of appropriate exercises. To 
 teach the left hand the same movements 
 that were formerly made with the right, in 
 the trades followed by the wounded. 
 Apprenticeship with the left hand to be 
 taught by following the rules of opposite 
 symmetry. The use of the left-hand only 
 cannot be applied to all trades. Those 
 trades requiring great effort must not 
 be chosen. 
 
 6. LEFT-HANDED WRITING BY THE MAIMED . . 147 
 
viii. CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 IV BELGIAN METHODS OF TECHNICAL EDUCA- 
 TION T 57 
 
 j PROGRESSIVE TECHNICAL EDUCATION THROUGH- 
 OUT BELGIAN SCHOOLS 157 
 
 2. THE CHARLEROI UNIVERSITY OF LABOUR . . i?9 
 
 T, BELGIAN INITIATIVE IN THE INDUSTRIAL RE- 
 EDUCATION OF THOSE MAIMED IN THE WAR, 
 IN FRANCE I 9 l 
 
The Science of Labour. 
 
 i. 
 
 THE HUMAN MOTOR. 
 
 I. DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM. 
 
 Amongst the numerous researches relating to 
 man, undertaken by modern science, those which 
 are connected with his physical fitness for work 
 are certainly amongst the most important. The 
 human being, in these investigations, is looked upon 
 as a motor to which chemical energy is supplied, 
 which is restored to the world in the form of 
 mechanical labour and heat. 
 
 All animals may be compared to motors, which 
 transform the energy with which they have been 
 supplied. But they differ from inanimate motors in 
 that the cycle of transformations is not reversible 
 in the case of the living motor, and the energy which 
 
2 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 is given it must invariably be of a chemical nature. 
 Moreover, the living motor can act only intermit- 
 tently ; fatigue and the need of sleep overtake it, 
 and forcibly interrupt the course of its activity. 
 
 The human motor may be studied from two very 
 different points of view. On the one hand, it is a 
 question of laboratory researches, having for their 
 chief object the verification of the laws governing 
 the transformation of energy in the living being. 
 Studies of this nature have been carried on in 
 every country, but principally by Chauveau in 
 Paris, Atwater and Benedict in the United States, 
 Riibner, Ziintz, and Loewy in Germany. We must 
 also remember the " Laboratoire d'Energe"tique" 
 founded by Ernest Solvay near the Physiological 
 Institute of the University of Brussels. This 
 laboratory has been in existence only four years. 
 Amongst successful work achieved there, we may 
 mention the experiments made by ourselves in 
 collaboration with M. Ch. Henry, on muscles ; 
 on a law of diminution of effort shewn by the 
 ergograph (C. R., of the Academy of the Sciences, 
 30 March, 1903) ; on the general equation of the 
 curves of fatigue (C.R., 24 August, 1903) ; on the 
 modifications of the ergographic constants under 
 various experimental conditions (C.R., 24 May, 
 1904) ; on a connection between labour and the 
 labour known as stationary, which, according 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 3 
 
 to the ergograph, are energetically equivalent 
 (C.R., 28 December, 1903) ; on the limits and on 
 the laws of the variations of available energy, 
 according to the ergograph, following the fre- 
 quency of the contractions, and the weight lifted. 
 (C.R., 28 November, 1904). By the use of the 
 apparatus known by the name of the Calorimetric 
 Chamber, Atwater was enabled to submit both 
 the physical and the intellectual toil of man to 
 a most rigorous test, from the standpoint of the 
 transformations of energy. 
 
 On the other hand, we have to consider the 
 application of the subject to the study of industrial 
 labour, and this study can be pursued as well in the 
 laboratories as in the factories and the workshops. 
 The immediate object of these enquiries is very 
 different from the former. It is not impossible, 
 within the impassable limits of the law of the 
 conservation of energy, to communicate an 
 activity to the human motor which will favour 
 the liberation of one form of energy rather than of 
 another ; we are thinking of exterior, mechani- 
 cal energy, the only kind which is of use in 
 industrial work, and which should therefore rank 
 above internal energy, which cannot be used. 
 Following the principle of the conservation of 
 energy, which has been indisputably verified on 
 the muscles, the heat given off, and the me- 
 
4 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 chanical work produced, will be found to be 
 equivalent ; that which the human motor gains 
 on the one hand, it loses on the other. Further- 
 more, stationary work is often sterile work, convert- 
 ing itself integrally into heat and resolving itself 
 into intense fatigue. The general principle for the 
 production of useful work is admitted ; there is 
 still room for the choice of the most appropriate 
 movements, those best adapted to attain the end 
 in view ; certain movements are exhausting and 
 unproductive, either because they are made too 
 slowly or with an effort out of proportion to the 
 result obtained, or because they are badly loca- 
 lized, since they put one articulation in motion 
 in place of another, etc. 
 
 Hence the idea of submitting the working 
 of the bodily organs to experimental tests with a 
 view to discover their best working conditions, 
 to detect fatigue, and to lay down a scientific 
 basis for industrial work. We may call the 
 results achieved by researches in this sphere the 
 " Science of Labour," for, although this study 
 is only in its infancy, it has the benefit of all 
 preceding researches of pure science which will 
 give it their authoritative support in its noble 
 desire that the working classes may benefit by the 
 physiological and psychological discoveries of 
 our century. One of the promoters of this move- 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 5 
 
 ment was the lamented Hector Denis, Deputy 
 to the Belgian Chamber, who with incomparable 
 ardour never ceased to encourage his fellow- 
 citizens in those researches of which he foresaw 
 the interest and utility. 
 
 II. THE PROBLEM OF APPRENTICESHIP. 
 
 Industrial evolution gives an ever-increasing 
 importance to the psychic factor in the artisan's 
 work, says Omer Buyse 1 , formerly director of the 
 Universite de Travail at Charleroi, now director 
 of that at Brussels. 
 
 The phenomenon known as the " Crisis of 
 Apprenticeship " is mainly due, according to this 
 author, to the want of harmony between the old 
 form of apprenticeship and the technical capacity 
 requisite at the present day. Man, even now, very 
 rarely works as a physical motor in the industries 
 of ancient Europe. Man works more and more as 
 a psycho-physiological apparatus. The problem 
 oFTSdustrial labour, therefore, cannot be dealt 
 with simply as a branch of mechanics applied to 
 the natural sciences ; there is mixed with it a 
 psychic element which we recognise by its mani- 
 festations, but of the causes of which we are still 
 
 Omer Buysc, Le probleme psycho-physique de I'Appren- 
 tisage (Revue Psychologique, Vol. iii, 1910, pp. 377-399, Brussels). 
 
6 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 ignorant. The growing importance of the psychic 
 factor will displace the axis of enquiry in the field of 
 psycho-physiology. The manner of working, the 
 dynamic effort, the duration of pauses, etc., intro- 
 duce elements of variation in the expenditure of 
 energy and the amount of useful work supplied, 
 which depend on the psychic qualities of the 
 individual from the standpoint of productiveness 
 both as to quantity and quality (Buyse). 
 
 Omer Buyse did his utmost to discover the 
 period of the psycho-physiological factors which 
 come into play during apprenticeship in the wood 
 and iron trades, by watching the work of four 
 young workmen in different stages of proficiency 
 for several months, and from day to day, and 
 that of some student mechanical-fitters, electri- 
 cians, modellers and joiners from the School 
 of Handicrafts, as well. From these observations 
 one dominating fact stands out ; through all the 
 changes to which industry has been subjected 
 the value of the workmanship always is, and will 
 for ever remain, the decisive element in the develop- 
 ment of the capacity of production. Engineers 
 and inventors apply themselves ceaselessly to 
 perfecting tools and the means of manufacture by 
 working out ideas supplied by science, but these 
 experimenters do not seem to have paid sufficient 
 attention to the perfecting of the human motor. 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 7 
 
 The introduction of automatic and semi-automatic 
 tools and of the system of serial operations pro- 
 foundly modify the qualities required in a work- 
 man. Under what conditions should the work 
 of a craftsman be accomplished so as to attain 
 its best economic result ? It can be admitted as 
 possible that this question may be answered by 
 the investigations of experimental physiology 
 in conjunction with mechanical measurements 
 made upon rudimentary industrial labour. One 
 may hope, Omer Buyse remarks with justice, that 
 systematic study may soon lead us to an exact 
 knowledge of the physiological and psychological 
 qualities upon which the fitness of a craftsman 
 rests. The orientation which some professors of 
 technical education, in collaboration with some 
 experimental physiologists, actually give to their 
 researches enables us to foresee the not far distant 
 time when they will remove, with their registering 
 appliances, into the factories and workshops 
 and into the timber-yards themselves, there to 
 make scientific enquiries concerning the training 
 and the work of the artisan. Examination of 
 the economic problem of labour resolves itself into 
 (a) the subject : the power, the apprentice, the 
 workman ; and (b) the object : the resistance, 
 the work to be accomplished in typical indus- 
 tries. 
 
8 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 Omer Buyse goes on to say that the physical 
 attitude of the workman as he works has a great 
 influence on the amount of work he accomplishes. 
 By discovering the voluntary degree of economy 
 of energy that it is possible to effect in the handling 
 of old-fashioned tools, in prescribing attitudes 
 which lead to a minimum of expenditure of energy 
 for a given piece of work, laboratory researches 
 may have a considerable influence on the pro- 
 ductivity of the worker. 
 
 Hence, says Buyse, the effect of training or habit 
 (a state antagonistic to fatigue), is to augment 
 the ease, the speed, the accuracy, and the uni- 
 1, formity of an act by its repetition. It may be 
 referred to one thing ; the adaptation of the 
 psycho-physical apparatus to certain particular 
 conditions of action. By the repetition of a 
 movement an aptitude is acquired for doing it 
 ^ ^ without the conscious intervention of the will 
 or the attention ; consequently, training effects 
 an economy of nervous flux and relieves the 
 strain on the central nervous system. In the 
 second place, under the influence of training, the 
 involuntary movements which, at the beginning, 
 are made in co-operation with the principal 
 movement, are suppressed. These involuntary 
 movements are a characteristic sign of inaptitude, 
 and constitute a waste of energy. Practice leads 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 9 
 
 the body to put those muscles whose action is 
 inconvenient out of play, and to employ only 
 those which do the work with the greatest economy 
 and the minimum of effort. The mechanical 
 nature of work which results from training, 
 attains its maximum in the movements of the small 
 muscles whose expenditure of the flux of excita- 
 tion in isolated contractions is manifestly less 
 than that exacted by putting the large muscles 
 in motion. The introduction of machinery in 
 production has lightened the task of the large J 
 muscles at the expense of the small ones. The U 
 principle of the small muscles is at the bottom of 
 the evolution of labour. 
 
 An important constituent element in industrial 
 intelligence is voluntary attention ajuL concen- 
 tration. It is thus OTaTTin the midst of the 
 noises and bustle of a factory, the machinist 
 remains turned towards the machine which is 
 performing his work. The psycho-physical apti- 
 tudes which seem to be peculiarly favourable to 
 industrial work would, according to Buyse, 
 appear to be the rapidity and the precision of 
 movement ; these characteristics are the ex- 
 pression of the degree of control that the worker 
 possesses over his movements, and their co- 
 ordination. 
 
 Another indication of aptitude appears in an 
 
io THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 interesting phenomenon which accompanies the 
 period of apprenticeship, it is the estimation of 
 the amount of fatigue produced in overcoming 
 resistance of the tool, in industrial work. 
 
 This estimate bears upon two different quan- 
 tities : (i) the muscular effort connected with 
 the execution of the work ; (2) the nervous effort 
 due to the fact that the nervous centres, according 
 to loteyko, transmit to the muscles an excitation, 
 the strength of which is in direct proportion to 
 the inertia of the muscle (Buyse). 
 
 Our investigations have in effect shewn that the 
 intensity of l nervous effort increases as the 
 mechanical conditions of the work required of the 
 muscles become more difficult, and inversely 
 that the intensity of the nervous effort diminishes 
 when the muscular work to be done becomes 
 more easy (law^o-4ke-cojipmy of effort). In this 
 we have a^remarkable instance of the automatic 
 regulation of nervous effort, the difficulties of the 
 work acting as a stimulant to the nerve-centres. 
 
 Buyse investigates this question from the stand- 
 point of apprenticeship. This automatic regula- 
 tion is acquired by experience, and depends upon 
 
 1 J. loteyko, Les Lois, de I'Ergograph : Etude physio- 
 logique et Mathematique. Bull, de I'Academie de Belgique, 
 classe des Sciences, 1904, pp. 557-726 ; 2nd Ed. in the 
 Annales d'Electrobiologie, 1905. See also; J. loteyko, 
 La lot de V Economic de I' effort en dynamique nerveuse. Com- 
 municated to the Sixth International Physiology Congress 
 of Brussels, 1904. 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR n 
 
 an estimate of the intensity of the effort required for 
 the performance of the work, made probably by 
 the perception of the fatigue which will result 
 from the work. Apprenticeship which leads to a 
 realization of economy in labour is the regulator 
 of the muscular effort, which succeeds nervous 
 action. Muscular and nervous attempts at 
 action, like the succeeding judgments as to the 
 effort put forth, are not haphazard and un- 
 directed. 
 
 They are methodical, and the method consists 
 in attacking the particular work to be done in the 
 manner suggested by past experience. By this 
 means, and by means of a series of mistakes, 
 each recognized in turn, it becomes possible 
 to adjust the neuro-muscular excitation more' 
 accurately to the action required. Apprentice- 
 ship to industries is carried out on the experi- 
 mental method. A beginner, who has no know- 
 ledge whatever regarding the effort required for 
 cutting wood is prepared to make a considerable 
 effort in order to perform the work successfully ; 
 he tires, and thus gets some idea, some estimate 
 of the effort to be made. To make hypotheses, 
 says Buyse, to put them to the best of experience, 
 to rectify them until you come to some provi- 
 sional or definite conclusion, to eliminate from 
 the error another of less importance, until you 
 
12 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 get near the truth, is to simply apply the experi- 
 mental method, the method of discovery. 
 
 III. ECONOMIC METHOD OF WORKING THE BODY. 
 
 The investigations of Mosso, and of his colla- 
 borators at the University of Turin, have opened 
 the road to these researches. They are too well 
 known to need repetition here. An exhaustive 
 study has been made by Italian physiologists of 
 the various conditions governing the optimum 
 of work with regard to the weight to be lifted, 
 the speed of contraction, intervals for rest, etc. 
 
 After writing our theories for the Doctorate of 
 Medicine, prepared in Paris, in M. Ch. Richet's 
 laboratory, we devoted more than fifteen years 
 to the study of physical and intellectual fatigue 
 in the Physiological Institute, Brussels, and in other 
 laboratories. 1 
 
 We owe to M. Imbert, Professor in the Faculty 
 of Medicine at Montpellier, a very attractive 
 
 See some of our publications : Fatigue (article in the 
 Dictionnaire de Physiologic, of Ch. Richet, nearly 200 pp., 1903); 
 La Fonction Musculaire (Doin, Paris, 1909) ; Le quotient de la 
 Fatigue (C.R. de I'Academie des Sciences, 1900) ; Effets du 
 travail de certains groupes musculaires sur d'autrcs groupes 
 qui ne font aucun travail (Ibid., 1900) ; Participation des 
 centres nervcux aux phenomenes de fatigue musculaire (Annee 
 Psychol, VII, 1900) ; Le travail des centres nerveux spinaux 
 (C.R., 1900) ; Les lois de I'Ergographie : etude physiologique 
 et Mathematique (Travaux de I'Institut Solvay de Physiologic. 
 Pamphlet of 172 pp., 1904). 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 13 
 
 study on the economic method of working the 
 body. 2 
 
 We cannot, by the exercise of our will, modify 
 the form of our muscles ; but it is not without 
 interest to know whether our various muscles, 
 in so far as they are motors, are sufficiently 
 defective in their natural form to entail a useless 
 expenditure of energy, or whether they are not so. 
 By reason of the mechanical conditions under 
 which the levers of the body operate, the intensity 
 of the force of muscular contraction varies during 
 the moving of a load, or even during the stationary 
 holding of a weight, according to .the position of 
 the bone-lever used. Now, it generally depends 
 upon our will as to whether we adopt this or that 
 position for our bone-lever, in order to accomplish 
 some exterior and pre-determined task, and we 
 thus do exercise some volitional influence upon 
 our total expenditure of energy. Imbert says, 
 that it is a fascinating idea to think that our body, 
 so far as it is only a productive instrument of toil, 
 is constructed upon a general plan and presents 
 such harmony of action that all useless expen- 
 diture of energy is, or at least may be, avoided. 
 This point of view is inexact. And even fatigue, 
 which seems to be the most important criterion 
 
 2 A. Imbert, Mode de fonctionnement economique de I'or- 
 ganisme (Collection Scientid), 1902. 
 
14 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 of expenditure of energy, may correspond to 
 different expenditures of energy, if we compare 
 different motors, bodies which are not in identi- 
 cally the same state of action. Moreover, the 
 idea of mechanical work, which is independent of 
 the time employed in performing it, is purely 
 abstract. 
 
 If it is by fatigue that we wish to judge of the 
 total expenditure of energy, the limits between 
 which this expenditure may vary should be 
 attentively studied, so that the reaction of the 
 organism to sufficiently marked variations of 
 sensation may be clearly noted. Imbert was 
 anxious that children should not be included in 
 these experiments. For them, physical exercise, 
 the expenditure of mechanical energy, is a physio- 
 logical necessity, almost as necessary as food ; 
 they spend from the need of spending ; they run 
 and jump instead of keeping to the economic 
 gait of walking ; they even prefer a painful 
 ascent by a rope to the less exhausting process of 
 going up a staircase. The natural and unconscious 
 pre-occupation of children is not, as it is with 
 the grown man, to discover how to make the 
 best use of power, but, by exercise, to encourage 
 the normal development of the human motor. 
 In short, they are not perfect motors, but motors 
 in course of formation. Now, in contrast with 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 15 
 
 children, from the standpoint of the utilization 
 of their strength, are convalescents. They seek 
 for the strictest economy of force ; they do all they 
 can to lessen such work as involves vertical 
 displacement of the centre of gravity. 
 
 Imbert cites an interesting incident investi- 
 gated by Haughton, relating to a road traversed 
 by some English fisher women. The work of these 
 women was the gathering of shellfish, and they 
 had to go along a road between their village 
 and the shore. The ground to be crossed consisted 
 of two very different stretches, so far as ease of 
 walking was concerned one was firm and re- 
 sisted the pressure of the feet, the other was 
 sandy, the absence of firmness necessitating a 
 greater expenditure of energy for the same rate 
 of walking. On account of this peculiarity, the 
 road which entailed the lesser expenditure of 
 energy was not, geometrically, the shorter way, 
 that is to say, the straight line, because the 
 straight line would have compelled a long walk 
 over the sandy piece of ground. Neither of these 
 paths was that followed by the fisher- women. 
 The path chosen was midway between the two 
 and it was just this one that corresponded to the 
 minimum expenditure of energy. Haughton 
 decided mathematically that the law followed 
 in this walk was analogous to the law of refraction, 
 
16 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 by following which, light waves passing through 
 media having different densities, are transmitted 
 from point to point in a minimum of time and 
 with a minimum of effort. In other words, by 
 choosing the intermediate road, partly composed 
 of firm soil and partly of sand, the fisherwomen 
 were able to accomplish the journey in the mini- 
 mum of time, and with the minimum production 
 of fatigue. 
 
 Other examples, in various spheres, could be 
 cited, all demonstrating the constant tendency 
 of the human organism to reduce its expenditure 
 of energy to a minimum. The movements of 
 the eye form a good example of a natural adapta- 
 tion for effecting this object, the eye, on leaving 
 one object and fixing another, revolving about 
 an axis perpendicular to a plane cutting both 
 the former and the new line of vision. This is 
 known as Listing's law, and shews that the eye 
 normally makes the smallest possible movement 
 in transferring its line of vision from one object 
 to another. 
 
 Generally, it is by a forward inclination of the 
 body that we diminish the amplitude of the vertical 
 movements of our centre of gravity. We also 
 assume this stooping attitude when walking 
 quickly, or from fatigue, or, again, when we are 
 over-weighted by too heavy a load, that is to say, 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 17 
 
 under the various circumstances for which it 
 becomes necessary to expend the maximum effort. 
 Imbert draws attention to the antagonistic muscles. 
 There are very few muscles that are really 
 antagonistic (as are, for example, the internal 
 and external rectus muscles of the eye). Other 
 muscles are either in direct accord, or else, without 
 ceasing to be antagonistic, can co-operate simul- 
 taneously for the achievement of a common pur- 
 pose, as Demeny has observed. For instance, we 
 see, in slow movements of uniform speed, that 
 there is a simultaneous contraction of the two 
 antagonistic muscles. Now a force constantly 
 and always acting in the same manner on a body 
 will give it a quickened motion ; it follows, 
 therefore, that sustained speed can be obtained 
 only if the action of the flexing or extending 
 muscle is each moment counterbalanced by an 
 inverse action of the antagonistic muscle whose 
 intervention is indispensable. It is different 
 directly the movements executed became rapid. 
 The mechanical reason for the intervention of the 
 antagonistic muscle then no longer exists ; also 
 it appears that this muscle remains relaxed, 
 except at the end of a movement, when it 
 intervenes tp cancel the speed. In all these 
 cases expenditure is reduced and the work in- 
 creased. 
 
 B 
 
i8 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 It is just the same with the form of the muscles, 
 which, according to Haughton's observations, 
 is strictly adapted to the nature of the work to 
 be done, such as the heart for example, where the 
 complex arrangement of the muscular fibres 
 renders them particularly suitable for utilization 
 to the performance of the work required of that 
 organ. W. Roux has likewise demonstrated the 
 perfect harmony existing between the form of the 
 muscles and the conditions of their work. The 
 variations in the length of the fibres are adapted 
 to the extent of the movements which the muscles 
 have to make, and we see the muscular fibres 
 extend themselves spontaneously when stretching 
 to a part of their length, and vice versa. Marsy 
 definitely solved this problem in the affirmative. 
 
 Finally, Imbert cites the work done by 
 de Chauveau, to whom was reserved the discovery 
 of the first laws of muscular energy. His investi- 
 gations having become classic, we will not recapi- 
 tulate them here, but we must remember that 
 they dealt chiefly with the evolution of the 
 internal work of the muscles by virtue of the 
 principle of Equivalence, which governs all 
 transformations of energy. His experiments were 
 carried out upon the flexors of the fore-arm in 
 man, whose conditions of work vary according 
 to circumstances. 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 19 
 
 The outcome of all these experiments is, says 
 Imbert, that, in the mechanical movements as 
 well as in the conservation of the internal energy 
 of the muscles, one clearly sees the unconscious 
 but constant effort to reduce the total expenditure 
 of energy to a minimum and the voluntary 
 realisation of mechanical conditions corresponding 
 to this minimum of expenditure. The body thus 
 would appear to be apt to appreciate two kinds of 
 conditions, the first external and of a mechanical 
 nature, the second internal and of a physiological 
 nature ; it would seem to know how to keep 
 account at the same time of mathematical laws 
 and of biological laws, but it is always by the same 
 process that it arrives at conclusions which differ 
 in their essence. The working of the animated 
 motor is, in effect, influenced by that very working 
 itself ; all work, sufficient in duration and 
 quantity, entails fatigue, and it is in reality by 
 the constant effort to avoid fatigue that we 
 regulate our action (Imbert). 
 
 The protective part played by fatigue, which 
 we dealt with in a previous publication, 1 is fully 
 confirmed by these investigations. 
 
 We have previously seen that, according to 
 Buyse, at the time of apprenticeship, that is to 
 
 1 J. loteyko, Les Defenses psychiques : I. La Douleur ; 
 II. La Fatigue. Revue Philosophique, Feb. 1913. 
 
20 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 say, during the psychic adaptation to the work, we 
 became conscious of the nervous effort required 
 for over-coming the external resistance offered to 
 our performance of the work. At first the 
 movements are accomplished at the expense of a 
 great waste of energy, but repeated attempts 
 lead to economy in movements. The decisive 
 movement here is the consciousness of the effort 
 required. In the investigations connected with 
 the method of the economic working of the body 
 (outside the phase of apprenticeship), this decisive 
 movement which regulates the conservation of its 
 energy is the feeling of fatigue. Now, effort and 
 fatigue are correlated sensations, for a great effort 
 invariably leads to fatigue, and when a young 
 apprentice, in the course of time, acquires the best 
 movements, it is because he is convinced by 
 experience that they lead to the minimum of 
 fatigue. 
 
 We are, therefore, justified in affirming that the 
 psychic factor which regulates the expenditure of 
 energy of the human motor, so as to ensure the 
 most economical working, the factor which guides 
 the animal machine to adaptation to the best 
 conditions for working, which even modifies the 
 forms of muscles to suit them to their work, 
 is the sensation of fatigue. We know that the 
 function creates the organ. The importance 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 21 
 
 of fatigue from the standpoint of evolution 
 
 is here transparently clear. 
 
 The wrong movements, badly adapted, accom- 
 panied by a waste of energy, are those that, at 
 the same time, are the most fatiguing ; now, 
 pain and fatigue are the physical and psychical 
 conditions which we are endeavouring to avoid 
 throughout our lives. Fatigue is the conscious- 
 ness of over-work, the result, it may be, of too 
 much work, or it may be unproductive work, 
 accompanied by waste. 
 
 Is fatigue supreme ? It certainly is not more so 
 than all our other psychic defences, such as, for 
 example, pain, whose defensive role has been so 
 thoroughly investigated by Charles Richet. Even 
 the general law of pain and of pleasure may, in 
 certain cases, be opposed to happiness. The part 
 played by fatigue could be exercised only within 
 certain limits. Like all sensations, fatigue is 
 subject to illusions, to oscillations, it may become 
 insensible in some pathological conditions, or, on 
 the contrary, be unduly developed without 
 apparent cause. It is, moreover, subject to the 
 conditions of work. It is easy to understand that 
 the aberrations are more frequent when the work 
 is very complicated as, for example, in the case of 
 industrial work. Le Chatelier is, therefore, right 
 when he protests against the supposition that 
 
22 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 skilled workmen understand quite well how to 
 make the best use of their forces in order to 
 obtain a given result with the minimum amount 
 of fatigue. 
 
 If we take, as an example, the transport of heavy 
 weights, a task which is relatively simple, we find, 
 according to Taylor, that the labour is governed by 
 six variables, viz., the weight carried on each 
 journey, the distance traversed, the inclination 
 of the road, the speed when fully loaded, the 
 speed of the return empty-handed, and the time 
 of rest. The workman could not in any case 
 determine under these conditions the most 
 economical use of his mechanical energy. 
 
 In other cases a dozen or more variables have 
 been counted. Taylor devoted 25 years of his life to 
 making exact calculations concerning these vari- 
 ables, and their large number prevents the work- 
 man himself from taking any bearings. We may 
 conclude that the sense of fatigue ceases to be really 
 protective under these conditions, which moreover 
 nature could not have foreseen. This sense partly 
 loses its biological significance here, not because 
 there is anything out of harmony with natural laws, 
 but because the body is not adapted to all these 
 new functions imposed upon it by modern indus- 
 tries. Consequently, it is no longer the sense of 
 fatigue which can be the decisive moment to which 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 23 
 
 is allotted the task of regulating the optimum of 
 work. When dealing with industrial labour 
 this task is handed over to another factor. We 
 are contemplating scientific investigations of the 
 conditions of the work itself, the measurement 
 of, not only subjective, but also objective, fatigue. 
 
 4. THE MEASURE OF INDUSTRIAL FATIGUE. 
 
 The problem of labour could never have been 
 solved had it not been for the entry of physiology 
 and psychology into its domain. 1 
 
 Therefore, relying upon facts authenticated by 
 Mosso, and upon other considerations we find 
 that fatigue increases much more rapidly as the 
 duration of the work done is prolonged. 2 
 
 Mosso l has shewn, by means of the ergograph, 
 that the exhaustion of our bodies does not increase 
 in direct ratio with the work accomplished, 
 therefore, the performance of work two or three 
 times more arduous does not produce fatigue 
 two or three times as great The important fact 
 to remember is, however, that a given task per- 
 
 1 J. loteyko, La Mesure de la Fatigue professionnelle. 
 Revue psychologique II, 1909, p. 53 Bruxelles. 
 
 2 J. loteyko, Les Defenses Psychiques. Revue philoso- 
 phique, Feb. 1913. This article contains other details 
 bearing on the question. 
 
 1 A. Mosso, La fatigue intellectuelle et physique, Paris, F. Alcan 
 1894. 
 
24 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 formed by an already fatigued muscle has a much 
 more injurious effect upon that muscle, and results 
 in the production of greater fatigue than would 
 be the case if the same task were performed under 
 normal conditions. 
 
 The human organism cannot be compared to a 
 locomotive which consumes a given quantity of 
 coal for each mile of road it covers ; when the 
 body is tired a small amount of labour produces 
 disastrous effects. In these experiments the 
 accumulation of fatigue was measured by means of 
 the time necessary for complete restoration to the 
 normal. 
 
 We studied 2 the accumulation of fatigue by 
 means of short rests between the ergographic 
 curves. The same rest produced a diminishing 
 effect in proportion as the muscle became more 
 and more fatigued. Identical phenomena were 
 observable in the domain of intellectual fatigue. 
 
 This proof, we maintain, shews the necessity of 
 raising wages, not in proportion to the increase 
 of labour, not uniformly for each additional hour 
 of work, but on a graduated scale, seeing that the 
 wear and tear of the body proceeds in geometrical 
 progression, whilst the work is accomplished in 
 arithmetical progression. It also proves that 
 human energy is opposed to over-work, the work 
 
 2 J. loteyko, Les lois de I'Ergographie, quoted above. 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 25 
 
 itself becoming less and less productive in propor- 
 tion to the growth of fatigue. The reduction of 
 the hours of work thus become a biological and 
 economic necessity. 1 
 
 Hence we can formulate the following postulates 
 which social science should take into consideration, 
 seeing that they are derived from statements 
 scientifically and experimentally proved. 
 
 1. That as the daily work of the workman 
 follows an arithmetical progression, so his 
 wages should follow a geometrical progres- 
 sion. The co-efficient in the increase of 
 salaries should be experimentally determined 
 in each trade by taking into consideration 
 the methods of work employed. 
 
 2. For equal work, an equal wage. The 
 woman who does the same work as the man 
 should be paid the same wage. The amount 
 of work done should be determined in each 
 trade. An equivalence might be established 
 between the various trades based on the 
 laws of energy. This postulate, which is 
 that of justice, based on the equality of 
 production, nowhere comes into collision 
 with that of justice based on an equality of 
 expense. It is thus, for example, that, by 
 
 1 See : L. J. Fromont, Une experience industrielle de la 
 journee de travail. Published by 1' Institut Solvay de Sociologie, 
 1906. Brussels. 
 
26 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 reason of a different principle, fathers of 
 large families have a right to supplementary 
 grants. 
 
 3. It is necessary to put a maximum limit 
 to the daily number of working hours for 
 each trade. On account of the inevitable 
 wear and tear of the body, an excessive 
 increase in the number of working hours 
 cannot be compensated for, by an increase 
 of wages. 
 
 4. In the educational world teachers expose 
 themselves to grave disappointment when 
 they increase the amount of the pupils' work 
 without knowing the laws of fatigue in 
 relation to their age, sex, constitution, and 
 aptitudes. The difficulty to be surmounted 
 does not increase in proportion to the matter 
 to be studied, but much more rapidly 
 (Ebbringhaus). 
 
 Those subjects which demand a high degree of 
 training by means of prolonged periods of study 
 cannot be acquired by an organism in a state of 
 over-work. To solve the question scientifically 
 it is necessary to demonstrate that the worker is 
 over-worked, that is to say, that his physiological 
 expenditure is in excess of his receipts. In order 
 to avoid over-work it is necessary that the worker 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 27 
 
 should recover his full powers by his night's 
 rest and his weekly rest. 
 
 How are these results to be estimated ? The 
 matter is all the more difficult in that, to over-work, 
 are often added the injurious effects of an unhealthy 
 trade. There is, therefore, a double danger. 
 It would be interesting to study this combination of 
 two morbid effects, but it would also appear to be 
 indispensable that the effects of fatigue should 
 stand out in all their clearness if investigations 
 are to be conducted in a strictly scientific fashion, 
 so as to yield useful data. 
 
 It is absurd, says Liesse, 1 to pretend to fix 
 a priori a uniform length of working-day for 
 all industries in all countries. 
 
 The analysis of the elements of production 
 teach us, on the contrary, that there exist different 
 limits for each kind of work, often for each country 
 investigated, the nature of the climate, the race 
 and the habits of the people being the primary 
 causes of the diversity. Sommerfeld l shares 
 this opinion. 
 
 What methods can be advocated for studies of 
 this kind ? The pathological method has far 
 too long been the only one applied ; that consists 
 
 1 A. Liesse, Le travail au point de vere scientifique, industriel 
 et social, Paris, F. Alcan, 1899. 
 
 1 Th. Sommerfeld, Traite des maladies professionnelles. 
 French translation, Brussels, 1901. 
 
; 
 
 28 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 in drawing up statistics of morbidity and mortality. 
 Such a method, by itself, is insufficient, seeing 
 that the pathogenetic action of fatigue is the sign 
 of such serious trouble that it would be dangerous 
 to base labour legislation on an organic collapse 
 due to over-work. The methods advocated 
 should be more delicate and at the same time 
 more precise, allowing of the measuring, so to 
 speak, of the phenomena of fatigue and their 
 manifestations, so as to put in evidence the signs 
 of over- work long before organic collapse. It is a 
 question of actual prophylaxy of fatigue. Such 
 methods can be only psycho-physiological. 
 
 Fatigue is a very complex result of numerous 
 factors. The intensity of the fatigue is the 
 function of the following factors l : 
 
 1. Hours of work. 
 
 2. Relative wages (ratio between a living wage 
 and the cost of provisions). 
 
 3. Nature and organisation of the work. 
 
 4. Individual constitution and aptitudes (sta- 
 ture, length of arm, disposition of the 
 muscles, power of attention, morbid predis- 
 positions, maladies). 
 
 5- Age. 
 
 6. Sex. 
 
 7. Town or country life. 
 
 1 See our article in the Rsvue Physiologique, 1909. 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 29 
 
 8. Personal hygiene (nourishment, sleep, etc. 
 A workman may spend his wages on useless, 
 or even harmful things. Moral Hygiene). 
 
 One may add to these factors the influence of 
 climate, of race, of customs, etc. Amongst 
 these factors the nature and organisation of the 
 work comprise many chapters, and it is chiefly 
 here that research should be made ; but no 
 formal conclusion can be arrived at without 
 consulting the conditions collectively under which 
 the work is carried on. These conditions are to the 
 worker intrinsic and extrinsic. 
 
 The question of industrial fatigue was placed on 
 the programme for discussion at the International 
 Congress of Hygiene and Demography. The 
 Congress, held at Brussels in 1903, put the 
 question in the following form : To what extent 
 is it possible by physiological methods, to study 
 fatigue, its manifestations, and its degrees in the 
 various industries ? What are the arguments which 
 the physiological and medical science could or 
 might recommend in favour of definite methods 
 for the organisation of labour ? Three reports and 
 one paper were submitted in reply to this question 
 (Imbert, Treves, Demoor, and ourselves). Seeing 
 that the problem was so new, not one of these 
 writers was able to give the result of experi- 
 
30 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 ments, but they all at least made an attempt to 
 solve it. 
 
 In our article we suggested a plan of study 
 which included the following points : 
 
 I. Preliminary Medical Examination. The first 
 obvious necessity is the medical examination of 
 young people at the time when they are choosing 
 a career, and this applies just as much to the 
 various handicrafts as it does to the liberal 
 professions. All those who have taken the wrong 
 turning in their choice of a career become an 
 easy prey to over-work and only aggravate 
 existing defects. Their efficiency is seriously 
 diminished, and consequently their well-being. 
 In these inaptitudes in certain professions, we may 
 detect one of the causes of over-work, and social 
 unproductiveness. 
 
 II. Laboratory methods which have for their aim 
 the study of the energy of labour. 
 
 III. Investigations and experiments made on the 
 workers, in factories, workshops, and buildings. 
 
 1. The study of fatigue in different parts of the 
 body (organs of the senses, etc.). 
 
 2. Observations made on the progress of the 
 
 work done. It is essential to see which 
 conditions yield the best return. 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 31 
 
 3. Influence of machinery on the over-fatigue 
 of the workers. 
 
 4. Sensitivity to pain. Sensitivity to pain, 
 measured by the algesimeter, increases under 
 the influence of slight intellectual fatigue, 
 and diminishes under great exhaustion 
 Itoyko and Stef anowska) . 
 
 5. Ergographic methods. 1 
 
 6. The ponometric method. The ponometer is 
 the instrument invented by Mosso to inscribe 
 the curve of nervous effort during the pro- 
 gress of muscular work. 
 
 7. Method of the reflex phenomena. In the case 
 
 of cerebral fatigue, as the inhibitory effects of 
 the brain on the central nervous system 
 become less, the reflexes becomes exag- 
 gerated. This fact has been observed in 
 neurasthenia and also in cases of general 
 fatigue (West pole, Sternberg). 
 
 8. Method of chromatic sensitivity. This sensiti- 
 vity becomes less in cases of general fatigue. 
 
 9. Plethysmographic method. Under fatigue 
 it is noticeable that the capillary pulse 
 indicates asthenia (Binet and Courtier). 
 
 10. Method of measuring the time taken for 
 reaction. Reaction is slower under the 
 influence of fatigue. 
 
 1 See our book: La fonction Musculaire (Paris). 
 
32 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 IV. Pathological Methods. These consist in 
 studying pathogenic effects of over-work ; loss of 
 weight, arrested growth, deviations, malforma- 
 tions, industrial maladies. 
 
 V. Investigations and interrogations. We would 
 call attention to the interesting investigations 
 made by Bloch (of Paris) on the subject of 
 industrial fatigue. The author propounded the 
 following question to different artisans ; When 
 you have been very busy, whereabouts do you 
 feel fatigue ? The answers, at first sight, seem 
 very paradoxical ; we select a few examples. 
 The baker, who had been kneading all night, 
 leaning over and mixing the heavy mass of dough, 
 complained of fatigue in his legs. The black- 
 smith, who strikes the anvil, does not complain of 
 tired arms or shoulders, but of his back and loins. 
 The road-mender working with his pick is tired 
 in the legs. The shoemaker, who strikes with a 
 hammer, complains of his loins and abdominal 
 muscles. The young soldier, after a march, is 
 chiefly tired in the nape of the neck, even though 
 he has not carried a haversack. The inexperi- 
 enced violinist complains of a distressing strain 
 at the back of the neck ; whilst the accomplished 
 artist wails over a numbness of the left hand 
 which he has held contracted upon the finger- 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 33 
 
 board of his instrument. The experienced 
 oarsman suffers from fatigue in the calves of his 
 legs and insteps, after prolonged exertion. 
 
 The paradoxical appearance of the answers is 
 explained in the following way by Bloch : the 
 fatigue predominates in the groups of muscles 
 that become immovable when contracted. These 
 experiments shew the existence of static fatigue, / 
 which sometimes predominates. They also shew I 
 that the groups of auxiliary muscles in industrial v 
 movements should be exercised as much as possible 
 so as to break the continuity of contractions, 
 whether auxiliary or principal. 
 
 In his report laid before the Brussels Congress 
 Imbert particularly insists upon the slackening of 
 contraction and muscular relaxation which is the 
 first sign of fatigue and manifests itself after quite 
 a small number of contractions, even before the 
 height of the movement is appreciably diminished. 
 The fact, long known and noticed in the muscles 
 of the frog, has been verified by Imbert and 
 Gagniere in a man working at the ergograph. 
 This diminution of the rapidity of contraction 
 gives rise to a practical result of great interest. 
 
 The accidents in connection with labour are 
 generally the outcome of some fortuitous event. 
 In such cases they often arise so suddenly that the 
 workman finds it is impossible to escape from the 
 
 c 
 
34 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 danger that threatens. In other cases, on the 
 contrary, the menace is less sudden ; the workman 
 sees it coming, and can ward it off. But then 
 it is necessary that the workman's muscular 
 contraction should be achieved as rapidly as 
 possible, because the time at the workman's 
 disposal is often only a fraction of a second. And 
 in those trades where the workmen are, as it were, 
 attached to a moving machine and have to regu- 
 late the speed of their work by that of the machine 
 it is easy to conceive the part played by fatigue in 
 workmen's accidents. Besides, one has also to 
 take mental fatigue into consideration, and it is 
 this which lengthens the psychic process inter- 
 vening between perception and movement. 
 
 The result of this, says Imbert, is that accidents 
 connected with work must be more numerous 
 as the day advances, more numerous, too, in the 
 corresponding hours, at the end than at the 
 beginning of the week, if work is pressed too far. 
 The statistics of the distribution of accidents 
 connected with labour therefore constitute an 
 indication of the degree of fatigue in the human 
 motor (see later). 
 
 Other observations may also lead to the verifi- 
 cation of physical fatigue. The attitude of the 
 workman at the beginning and at the end of a 
 hard day's work may shew certain modifications, 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 35 
 
 which follow the principle discovered by Marey, in 
 connection with the vertical displacements of the 
 centre of gravity during progress of the work. 
 As a general rule, the useless expenditure of energy 
 is suppressed during fatigue and the body in- 
 stinctively adopts a more economical attitude. 
 This attitude can be determined by chronophoto- 
 graphy which also enables successive records to 
 be taken during the progress of work. 1 Whether 
 the question is one of intellectual, or of physical, 
 fatigue, can now be decided, as we have since then 
 been in possession of general methods of investi- 
 gation, and of general processes of measurement. 
 Such is the conclusion arrived at in Imbert's 
 report 2 
 
 In an article which appeared in L'Annee 
 Psychologique Imbert shews the importance of the 
 problem laid down by social medicine. However 
 useful these attempts may be, we must not ignore 
 the almost hostile indifference with which they 
 were at first received in the Syndicalist centres 
 of working men. Moreover, the experimental 
 
 1 In an exhaustive inquiry into the labour of working men 
 undertaken by the Solyay Institute of Sociology in Brussels, 
 in which we, in colloboration with others, undertook the 
 physiological part, the attitudes of workmen were determined, 
 thanks to cinematography. Events and the tragic accident 
 of which M. Waxwieiler, director of the Institute, was the 
 victim, delayed the publication of the inquiry. 
 
 2 Imbert, L'Etude scif-niifiquc experimentale du travail 
 professionel (Annee Psychologique, 1907, Vol. xiii., pp. 245- 
 259). 
 
36 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 and exact study of a trade is a project which 
 cannot be carried out without some difficulty. 
 The author quite rightty insists on the inadequate 
 information furnished by the valuation of mechani- 
 cal work ; as a matter of fact, this puts us in 
 possession of only one factor in the problem. 
 He gives an account of experiments he made on 
 the dock labourers at Cette in the unloading of 
 colliers as well as those of A. Gauthier on the labour 
 of wine and spirit storehouse workmen working 
 a wine-pump. In both cases the mechanical 
 labour was stringently estimated. But it would 
 be misleading to rely upon a simple estimate in 
 kilogramme-metres to fix the value of industrial 
 labour. 
 
 To compare in kilogrammes, labour achieved 
 under different conditions, would lead to the 
 conclusion, for instance, that to ascend to the 
 next floor by going up a good staircase is the 
 same thing as raising oneself by one's arms up a 
 long vertical rope, since the mechanical labour 
 is the same in both cases. Such a conclusion 
 is mechanically exact, but physiologically false. 
 
 Thus, the wine and spirit storehouse labourers, 
 studied by A. Gauthier accomplished, in their from 
 nine to ten hours' day, work estimated at 212,200 
 kilogramme-metres ; whilst the day's work of the 
 dock-labourers was equal to 75,000 kilogramme- 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 37 
 
 metres. Judging by these numerical results, 
 it would seem that the former labour must be 
 about three times as difficult as the latter, because 
 in these cases the same muscles came into play, 
 viz., those of the arms and of the trunk. But the 
 mechanical conditions in which the muscles 
 operated in these two kinds of work are sufficiently 
 dissimilar to completely reverse the conclusion. 
 All the dock-labourers would be capable of per- 
 forming the day's work of a wine pumper, but 
 the reverse would certainly not be the case. 
 Consequently the eight hours' day of the coalheaver 
 is paid at the rate of eight francs, whilst in the 
 same town the wage of the wine pumper is only 
 from 4-5 francs for a ten hours' day. 
 
 Compare with these figures the enormous 
 amount of" mechanical work a postman would 
 produce who made two rounds daily, each of 
 three hours duration, at a speed of 3,600 metres 
 per hour. We should thus get 259,200 kilogramme- 
 metres per day, whilst a dock labourer only 
 achieved 75,000 kilogramme-metres. 
 
 It is enough also to remember the works of 
 Chauveau dealing with internal muscular effort 
 (excess of animal heat), to judge of the well- 
 known inadequacy of an estimate based exclu- 
 sively upon the information derived solely from 
 mechanical labour. 
 
38 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 To estimate in kilogramme-metres is of practical 
 use when the aim is to measure the relative values 
 of different movements employed in the same 
 work, etc. But if it is desired to study the effects 
 that skilled labour may produce on the body 
 of the labourer, research should be directed to 
 the study of biological phenomena. 
 
 With regard to the literature on over-work 
 submitted to the XlVth International Congress on 
 Hygiene and Demography, held at Berlin in 1907, 
 we here give an outline, based on the account 
 given by Imbert. 1 Of the four reports submitted 
 to the Congress upon the question of Over-work 
 in the performance of industrial labour, those by 
 Dr. Roth, by Dr. Treves, and by Professor Imbert 
 assert the existence of overwork ; the third 
 report, presented by Eisner, chief engineer to the 
 Berlin Water Works, states the opposite view. 
 Eisner's report a very sincere one is the ex- 
 pression of very strong and convinced opinions, 
 and furnishes a partial explanation of the bitter- 
 ness of the conflict between Capital and Labour. 
 
 The three other writers, a German, an Italian, 
 and a Frenchman, all members of the Medical 
 profession, testify in a greater or less degree, 
 to the existence of over- work, not as a general 
 
 1 Imbert, Le sur menage par suite du travail professicn:iel 
 au XIV Congres international d' hygiene et de demographic, 
 Berlin 1907 (Annie Psychologique, XIV, Vol. 1908). 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 39 
 
 fact affecting the working population as a whole 
 of the various countries, but particularly with 
 regard to certain districts or to certain categories 
 of workers. Treves, of Turin, expresses himself 
 as follows, " The work in the experimental 
 physiological and psychological laboratories would 
 be sterile and of very limited interest, if the doctor 
 in the course of his researches did not ask himself 
 which are, in practical life, the circumstances 
 equivalent to those created by his experiments. 
 We may say that, from whatever branch of 
 human knowledge it may emanate, every concep- 
 tion carried into the field of applied knowledge 
 implies some contribution to the solution of some 
 social problem, and we cannot eliminate the 
 social problem of labour when speaking of the 
 aetiology of industrial over- work." 
 
 The statistics of the accidents connected with 
 labour, which shed such a vivid light on the 
 phenomena of the fatigue of workmen, have 
 been studied by Imbert and Mestre. 1 In fact, 
 work engenders fatigue, and that is chiefly 
 produced by modifications which supervene 
 in the manner in which the motor at work acts, 
 and which consists in a slackening and diminution 
 
 1 See : Imbert, Les accidents de travail et les compagnies 
 d' Assurances (Revue scientifiquc, 4 Juin, 1904). Imbert and 
 Mestre, Statistiques d'accidcnts du travail. Ibid., 24 Septembre, 
 1904). 
 
40 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 in the intensity of the muscular contraction. 
 The workman is all the less fit to perform the 
 necessary defensive movements when an accident 
 occurs, and to perform them with the required 
 rapidity, in that he is admittedly weary. 
 
 It follows that the number of accidents should 
 be greater when the workers are more tired, 
 and the distribution of these accidents according 
 to the time of day at which they occur should 
 furnish a means of estimating the degree of fatigue 
 felt by the workers who have been the victims of it. 
 
 Starting from this premise, the authors con- 
 structed a curve based on official information 
 gathered from one district in Herault, which 
 numbers 56,458 workmen of various trades, 
 subject to the law of accidents of labour, amongst 
 whom there had been 2,065 acknowledged victims 
 in 1903. In the next place, another curve w r as 
 prepared, and that included, distributed according 
 to the hours at which they occurred, the 660 
 accidents which had taken place in the industries 
 officially known as Management and Transport 
 (Manutention ct Transport) which employ 6,695 
 workers. The results may be grouped as follows : 
 
 (1) The number of accidents increases progres- 
 sively, from hour to hour during the first half-day ; 
 
 (2) After the fairly long mid-day rest, in the early 
 hours of the second half-day, the number of 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 41 
 
 accidents is notably less than during the last 
 hour of the morning ; (3) In the course of the 
 second half of the day accidents again become 
 progressively more frequent from hour to hour ; 
 (4) The number of accidents per hour towards 
 the end of the second half-day is notably 
 higher than the corresponding maximum of the 
 morning. 
 
 We could not wish for stronger confirmation 
 of the Author's point of view, and the degree of 
 certainty is still further increased when we com- 
 pare the two curves with one another and with the 
 curves of each trade which shew an identical 
 progression. Curves of this nature are nothing 
 new ; they are exactly like those that are ob- 
 tained, for instance, when measuring intellectual 
 fatigue by means of the esthesiometric method. 
 And this is one more argument to oppose to those 
 who try to see in Imbert and Mestre's curves the 
 influence of chance or unknown cause other than 
 fatigue. 
 
 The authors also produce the results of other 
 statistics which, without exception, confirm 
 the same facts. 
 
 In basing arguments upon the number of 
 accidents, it is permissible to estimate the average 
 danger incurred in a given trade. The most 
 dangerous trades are those comprised under the 
 
42 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 heading : Chemical Industries ; next comes 
 Management and Transport. 
 
 We owe some other experimental writings on 
 the measurement of industrial fatigue to Imbert., 
 in collaboration with Mestre, 1 inspector of labour 
 in Herault, who has instituted researches relating 
 to the transport of loads by means of a truck, 
 a wheelbarrow with two low wheels in common 
 industrial use. 
 
 One of the handles of this truck is made in two 
 pieces, the portion grasped by the workman being 
 joined to the other portion by means of two 
 plates, one on either side of the handle, the 
 attachment of the plates to the portion grasped 
 by the workman being made with a single bolt 
 so as to allow this portion to have a partial rotary 
 movement in the vertical plane of the handle. 
 On the under sides of the two portions of the handle 
 are fixed two angle plates, interposed between, 
 and fixed to which is an elliptical spring, whilst 
 on the top sides of the two portions are fixed a 
 second pair of similar angle plates, to one of which 
 a Marey's tambour is attached, whilst to the other 
 a rod is fixed which operates the diaphragm of the 
 tambour by means of a link connection. By 
 connecting the tambour to a receiving tambour 
 
 1 Imbert and Mestre, Recherches sur la tnarceuvre du 
 Cabrouct et la fatigue qui en rcsultc. Bulletin de {'inspection 
 du travail, 1905, No. 5. 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 43 
 
 operating a stylus arranged to inscribe a record 
 on a drum, it is obvious that the efforts made 
 by the workman in a direction perpendicular 
 to the handles (that is the effort necessary to 
 support the load), can be registered. If the 
 other handle of the truck is made cylindrical 
 and the portion grasped by the workman is 
 surrounded by a sleeve, the lower end of which 
 is attached to a pair of angle irons similar to those 
 employed on the other handle, and located on the 
 upper and under sides of it, the same arrangement 
 of elliptical spring, tambour and rod being used 
 as before, the efforts of the workman in the 
 operation of pushing or pulling the truck can be 
 registered. In addition to the methods just 
 described, which were used to obtain a record of 
 the energy expended in supporting and transport- 
 ing loads by means of the truck (railway platform 
 truck) , the energy required to load and unload the 
 truck was also registered by a modification of 
 the same device. This modification consisted 
 of an elliptical spring, atached to a hook and 
 provided with a handle, one side of the spring 
 carrying the transmitting tambour and the other 
 side the rod for operating the tambour diaphragm. 
 The workman grasped this device by the handle 
 and seized the load by means of the hook, his 
 effort in lifting or dragging the load on to or off 
 
44 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 the truck was thus recorded on a revolving drum. 
 Finally, one of Marey's boots was used to enable 
 a record to be taken of the effort made by the 
 workman on the axle of the truck wheels to check 
 the recoil during loading of the truck. 
 
 All the efforts put forth by the workman 
 during his work, both as to duration and intensity, 
 could thus be registered. Of the various move- 
 ments necessitated by the loading, transport, 
 and the unloading, the most painful and the 
 most tiring, because of its repetition, is that 
 of loading. In order to place in the barrow a 
 sack weighing 60 kilogrammes, the workman has 
 to exert an effort of about 30 kilogrammes. Hence, 
 a youth of about 16 or 17 years of age (these 
 investigations especially have the labour of 
 young workmen in view), can scarcely ever, 
 
 under the mechanical conditions under which 
 i 
 
 the load is handled, develop more than a maximum 
 effort of 40 kilogrammes, it is, therefore, an effort 
 equal to three quarters of the maximum which 
 the young workman has to put out at each 
 movement of loading. This movement being 
 repeated sixty times an hour, for the transport 
 of one sack to a distance of 48 metres, the young 
 workman has thus, during the legal working day 
 of ten hours, to put out with his upper limbs a 
 total effort of more than 18,000 kilogrammes. 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 45 
 
 As to the actual transport, it is not very 
 tiring on a firm soil, for a strength of from 3-4 
 kilogrammes suffices for the wheeling of a barrow 
 loaded with a sack weighing 60 kilogrammes. 
 On the other hand, one must seriously consider 
 the total distance covered, which at the time 
 these observations were made amounted to 
 about 30 kilometres for the ten hours' work. 
 
 Finally, if, after having made a young workman 
 labour for an hour, you give him two hours complete 
 rest, the ergographic tracings then taken will 
 still betray sufficiently marked signs of weariness. 
 
 The stature of the workman is an important 
 factor with regard to the fatigue due to working 
 with a barrow. The shortest are at the greatest 
 disadvantage. 
 
 Such objective results, say Imbert and Mestre, 
 might be usefully taken into consideration for the 
 regulation of women's and children's barrow-work, 
 and, if a strike were to break out in connection 
 with such labour, we should find, in the literature 
 of the subject, some new points by which to judge 
 the fairness of the worker's claims and for the 
 equitable solution of the dispute. The principle 
 of registration is besides of very general appli- 
 cation ; all industrial machinery can be provided 
 with a similar register allowing of the registration 
 of muscular effort. 
 
46 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 Professor R. Lepine, 1 of Lyons, after mentioning 
 Imbert's writings, adds, " Once more, such 
 investigations are still only in their infancy, 
 but one can easily guess their destiny ; and in 
 any case, one must admire those who have attemp- 
 ted them, for having shewn that, side by side 
 with the great questions which have until now 
 taken the lead in social medicine, such as tuber- 
 culosis, alcoholism, insanity and tenements, 
 there are others, more important in the future, 
 since their solution depends largely on the or- 
 ganisation of labour." 
 
 Imbert 2 has also made a study of another 
 kind of labour which consists in spreading out 
 the long branches of American vines in slips 
 of a predetermined length and breadth. This 
 work only occupies a minimum number of people. 
 At Montpellier, for instance, the staff employed 
 never exceeds one hundred, and is almost entirely 
 made up of women and girls. After having 
 made an estimate of this work in mechanical 
 units, it was possible for the present writer to fix, 
 numerically, the amount of work exacted from 
 each worker in return for each centime of her 
 wages. He has thus introduced a new element 
 
 1 R. Lepine, devolution de la Medecine a la fin du XIX 
 siecle (Revue du Mois, No. 12, ig&6). 
 
 2 Imbert, Etude experimentale du travail prof essior.nelouvrier 
 ( Revue d'economie politique, 1909). 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 47 
 
 into the problem of the general relation which 
 may exist between the wage paid and the 
 labour supplied. 
 
 This work, which lasts only for four or five 
 months in the year, from November to March, is 
 carried on either in huge sheds or in the open air ; 
 it begins at 7 a.m., and ends at about 5 p.m., 
 generally with two intervals of rest, one at 8 a.m. 
 for breakfast, the other at noon for the chief 
 meal of the da}/. As this work is paid by contract 
 and the task of each woman is absolutely inde- 
 pendent of that of her companions, each one is 
 absolutely free to regulate her hours of rest 
 according to her own wishes, or even to add to 
 them. 
 
 The effects of the cutting were registered by 
 means of graphic inscription. Thanks to the 
 employment of Marey's drum, some of the tracings 
 of muscular effort could be registered. These 
 tracings were calibrated in kilogramme-metres. 
 For each centime of wage the woman had to 
 supply 686 kilogramme-metres of labour. The 
 payment for 1,000 slips was 65 centimes. The 
 women, questioned as to the feelings of fatigue 
 experienced by them, complained of pain in the 
 line of the right shoulder when arranging their 
 hair in the morning. The statements, emanating 
 as they did from working women well accustomed 
 
48 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 to work, were evidence that the muscles used 
 during their work were daily submitted to a 
 certain amount of over-strain, since the night's 
 rest was not sufficient for their restoration to a 
 perfectly normal condition by the following 
 morning. 
 
 With regard to the localisation of the pains 
 complained of, this is explained by the fact that 
 for the rather thick slips the sections could not 
 be cut by the sole action of the flexors of the 
 fingers which surround the pruning-shears and 
 thus render the hand immovable ; the fore-arm 
 is in a certain degree of flexion with regard to 
 the arm, and hence the cutting is achieved by the 
 action of the extensor muscles of the fore-arm, 
 with the fixing of the arm due to the action of 
 the muscles of the shoulder. It may be noticed 
 that the over- work of which the women complained 
 is explained, not by a muscular phenomenon, 
 properly so-called, as the women did not complain 
 of any diminution in their power of working, 
 but by a phenomenon of a nervous order. This 
 proof shews plainly the importance of the element 
 of pain in the complex phenomenon of fatigue. 
 
 The author also verifies the superiority of some 
 workwomen over others. Even in an industry 
 which would seem to belong to those essentially 
 mechanical, the ability of the worker, and there- 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 49 
 
 fore his wage, may depend far more on his mental 
 than on his physical qualities. Now, all the 
 details by which the technique of a clever work- 
 woman may be distinguished from that of a 
 mediocre one, are translated in practice into an 
 economy of time in the performance of the various 
 actions which go to the preparation of the slips. 1 
 And a not less interesting thing is that the mediocre 
 workwoman, who has the same incentive as her 
 more skilled companion to increase her wage, 
 was incapable of recognising and then of imitating 
 those technical details, some of which are more- 
 over very easy to discover. 
 
 In other experiments the same writer 2 studied 
 the work of a filer, and determined the charac- 
 teristics of a good and a bad filer. 
 
 We will quote another experiment made by 
 Imbert 3 on transport by means of the common 
 wheelbarrow a vehicle possessing one wheel only. 
 As the load is generally a low one, the effort to 
 support it is greater than is the case with the two- 
 wheeled barrow, and the fatigue is more pronounced. 
 It is in discharging a load of 21 kilogrammes that 
 
 1 Imbert, Exemples d'etude physiologiqiiss directe du travail 
 professionnsl mivrier (Revue d' Hygiene et de Police samitaire, 
 Aout, 1909). 
 
 2 A. Imbert, Les Methodes de laboratoire appliqi:ees a I' etude 
 directe et pratique des questions ouvriers. Revue genii al d-. s 
 sciences, 30 Juin, 1911. 
 
 3 A. Imbert, Bulletin de I' Inspection du travail, 1909, 
 Nos. i and 2. 
 
 D 
 
50 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 the wheelbarrow has advantages over the two- 
 wheeled variety. A load of 21 kilogrammes, 
 directly borne, is the economic limit of a work- 
 man's carrying power. Pushing a one-wheeled 
 barrow is more tiring than pushing one with two 
 wheels. It causes a more accentuated action of 
 the respiratory and of the circulatory organs and 
 produces muscular pain, chiefly in the arms, of 
 a more lasting nature than that brought on by 
 wheeling a two-wheeled barrow. 
 
 These enquiries most certainly constitute a new 
 and most interesting chapter in social medicine. 
 The Political Economy Section of the French 
 Association for the Advancement of the Sciences 
 (session of 1908 held at Clermont-Ferrand), 
 as well as the IX Congress held at Paris in 1900, 
 by the Working Men's Association for Hygiene 
 and the Safety of Workers, and the nth Inter- 
 national Congress for Industrial Accidents (Rome, 
 1909), have each, as a result of the outcome of 
 enquiries on the subject, expressed a wish that an 
 immediate experimental study of industrial 
 labour should be encouraged and spread. 
 
 Imbert l expressed a wish to see workmen take 
 part in Scientific Congresses where questions 
 relating to their work, their food, and the acci- 
 
 1 A. Imbert, Role des ouvriers dans certains congres scienii- 
 fiques (La Grande Revue, 10 April, 1901;). 
 
THE HUMAN MOTOR 51 
 
 dents to which labour was liable, were discussed. 
 They could thus provide a quantity of most 
 useful information. 
 
 J. M. Lahy l made some experiments among 
 gem-engravers, with a view to discovering signs of 
 technical superiority, and amongst industries 
 demanding well directed rapid action, and volun- 
 tary attention short and intense (electricians 
 for example). He studied the times of nervous 
 reaction, and discovered amongst these men, 
 a constant opposition between the times of their 
 visual, and their auditory, reactions. The first- 
 class worker shows more rapid visual and slower 
 auditory reactions than the less skilled operator. 
 Ch. Richet and Laugier 2 have furnished interesting 
 studies on the same subject. 
 
 We cannot pass over in silence Lahy's valuable 
 investigations on the psycho-physiology of the 
 gunner, nor those of de Marchoux, Camus, and 
 Nepper on the aviation candidates, as well as 
 those undertaken by Pierre Menard on the 
 
 1 J. M. Lahy, L' Adaptation orgarAque dans les eiats d' attention 
 volontaires et brefs. C.R. de I'Acad. des Sciences, May, 1913 ; 
 Les signcs physiques de la superorite professionnelle chez les 
 daciylogrjphes. Ibid, 2 June, 1913 ; Etude exper de I' adapta- 
 tion psycho-physiologiques aux acies volontaires brefs et 
 intenses. Journal de Psychologic, 1913, pp. 220-236. Les 
 Conditions psycho-physiologiques dc I'aptitude au travail 
 dactylographique. Journal de Physiologie, 5 July, 1913. 
 
 2 Ch. Richet and II. Laugier, C.R. de la Sec. de Biclo^ie. 
 19 April, 1913. 
 
52 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 arterial pressure of soldiers in the trenches. All 
 these researches demonstrate variations in human 
 reactions, a difference in aptitudes, whence comes 
 the necessity for selection in order to obtain the 
 best return. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 53 
 
 II 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC 
 MANAGEMENT. 
 
 i. TAYLOR'S STUDIES ON THE ORGANIZATION 
 OF LABOUR. 
 
 It is still only a short time ago that the question 
 of the organization of labour from the scientific 
 point of view was first promulgated. The essays 
 cited above had succeeded only in raising the 
 question, without in any way solving it. The 
 problem may be very clearly summed up in a few 
 words, find the conditions of work which will 
 permit of the workman producing the maximum 
 effective result with a minimum production of 
 fatigue. And we can partially foresee the 
 possibility of solving the problem ; thanks to 
 the scientific methods already in force in the vast 
 domain of the science of labour. Thus, when the 
 echoes of the brilliant success of Taylor's methods, 
 which had rapidly attained celebrity in America, 
 reached Europe, it gave rise to some anxiety. 
 
 The workmen who follow these methods 
 rapidly, become twice, three times, even four 
 
54 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 times as productive as they originally were. 
 Let us take some examples. At the Bethlehem 
 Steel Company each, man was able to load, daily, 
 metal moulds, the total weight of which amounted 
 to I2| tons. Taylor succeeded in raising this 
 number to 47 tons. The work consists in laying 
 hold of a metal mould 42 kilogrammes in weight, 
 and of setting it down a few paces further off. 
 This is how Taylor set about increasing the output. 
 He had first of all made some preliminary experi- 
 ments on the speed and duration of human 
 labour. 
 
 Having then found two very strong and good 
 workmen, he gave them double wages during 
 the whole time of his experiments, whilst re- 
 quiring from them their maximum effort and ready 
 service under strict discipline. These men were 
 called upon to perform the most diverse tasks. 
 The times required for each of their movements 
 was chronographed by means of a time counter. 
 Thus, it was proved that man can, under these 
 conditions, daily perform a task varying from 
 34,000 to 140,000 kilogramme-metres, thus 
 demonstrating that there is no hard and fast 
 relation between labour, of whatever kind, and 
 fatigue, and, on the other hand, that it was ne- 
 cessary to select the workmen. It recognised the 
 necessity of eliminating all slow and useless 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 55 
 
 movements and of grouping the most rapid and 
 effective movements. 
 
 To return to the example quoted, Taylor, 
 in collaboration with Barth, established the fact 
 that a man should only be required to load 
 during a strictly denned time say 43% of the 
 day, and the 57% remainder of the day he should 
 have his hands empty. But he might be worked 
 58% of the day if he were called upon to fill half 
 moulds of 22 kilogrammes. And finally, there 
 exists a loading limit which he could sustain 
 throughout the day without fatigue. It is thus, 
 that, in superintending the duration of move- 
 ments, and in eliminating those that were useless, 
 Taylor succeeded in loading 47 tons of metal 
 moulds instead of I2j tons per man, per day. 
 This work is equivalent to the loading of 1,156 
 moulds of about 41 kilogrammes each, during 252 
 minutes ; thus giving a period of 13 -07 seconds 
 per mould. 
 
 There is, in these experiments, a confirmation 
 of the information collected by Coulomb, Chau- 
 veau, Mosso, and Imbert regarding the evalua- 
 tion of output, and on the economic methods of 
 the work of the human motor. It would appear 
 that most of these writings were unknown .to the 
 American engineer, and that he was solely 
 inspired by Coulomb's system. He also had 
 
56 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 occasion to testify to the enormous amount of 
 fatigue produced by static labour, often unpro- 
 ductive, for which he had no use, and which he 
 tried to eliminate. 
 
 A second example may be taken from brick- 
 laying. According to Gilbreth, who collaborated 
 with Taylor, for handling piles of bricks, a load 
 must not exceed 40 kilogrammes for a strong man 
 (first-class) ; 27-31 kilogrammes for a second- 
 class man. The bricks and the mortar are placed 
 by an assistant within reach of the brick-layer's 
 hand ; the latter should confine himself abso- 
 lutely to placing them ; the top of the brick 
 being on a level with the hand, the movement 
 takes place, following the action of the weight, 
 without contraction. The pile of bricks should 
 be at the required height so that the layer need 
 not stoop to pick them up or to work ; his 
 assistant should carry the bricks on a two-wheeled 
 barrow, which would allow of the transport of 
 216 bricks instead of only 60 (a one-wheeled barrow) 
 etc. By this method, three times as much work 
 is accomplished. 
 
 The example in the office of Industrial Engineer- 
 ing x is not less significant. The employees 
 folded, sealed, and dispatched 20,000 letters per 
 
 1 Quoted by Amar, Le Moteur Humain, Paris 1914, p. 582 
 (English Translation, G. Routledgc & Sons, Ltd.). 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 57 
 
 day. The effect of working according to scientific 
 rules produced the result that the work was 
 accomplished four times as quickly as before. 
 One of the girls succeeded in stamping from 100 
 to 120 envelopes per minute. She piled up the 
 letters so as to shew the addresses ; the stamps 
 were divided into strips, so as to follow one another 
 horizontally not vertically. She fixed a small 
 damp sponge to the first finger of her right hand, 
 and, taking a strip of stamps in the same hand, 
 damped them whilst removing them with the 
 thumb and stuck them on the addressed envelopes, 
 the thumb managing to wet the stamps and to 
 separate them from the strip ; and the letters 
 being allowed to fall, by their weight, into a 
 conveniently placed basket. 
 
 Taylor's work l was made known in France by 
 M. Henri Le Ch atelier, Inspector General of Mines, 
 Professor at the Sorbonne, and at the Ecole 
 Superieure des Mines, who caused his book on the 
 principles of scientific management to be trans- 
 lated into French, and himself wrote the preface 
 to it. He also wrote a preface to Jules Amar's 
 book, already quoted, which devotes a large space 
 to the methods of American engineers. Tech- 
 nical phenomena which appear quite simple are, 
 M. Le Chatelier says, extremely complex ; thus, 
 
 1 Taylor, F. W., Scientific Management, Harper and Brothers. 
 
58 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 the working of metals on a lathe, of which Taylor 
 made a special study, depends upon at least 
 twelve independent variables. Of these variables 
 the human factor is by far the most important. 
 It is upon this special point, hitherto hardly 
 taken into consideration, that Taylor has con- 
 centrated his chief attention. We must first 
 get rid of a very widespread prejudice. People 
 say that good workmen themselves know how to 
 use their strength to the best advantage. This 
 is a mistake, as Taylor has proved by the example 
 of the transport of loads. In that labour, fatigue 
 is the result of five variables, and it is impossible 
 for the workman to discover the relative values 
 of each of these variables by his sensations. In 
 studying this problem, Taylor has succeeded in 
 tripling the weight daily transported by the 
 workman without adding to his fatigue. 
 
 A series of articles was recently devoted by the 
 Revue de Metallurgie to the works of Frederic 
 W. Taylor. The first of these articles signed by 
 M. H. Le Ch atelier 1 is written for the purpose of 
 bringing the scientific character of the system 
 into notice. 
 
 The name of F. W. Taylor, says Le Chatelier, 
 will be famous in the history of industrial progress 
 by three great discoveries : (i) The rapid cutting 
 
 1 Le Chatelier, Frederic Winslow Taylor (1856-1915). 
 Revue de Metallurgie, April 1915, pp. 185-232. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 59 
 
 of steel ; (2) Regulations for the working of 
 metals ; (3) The principles for the scientific 
 organisation of factories. 
 
 It is with this third discovery that we are going 
 to deal here, and to analyse Le Chatelier's article. 
 The essential principle of Taylor's system is the 
 systematic application of the scientific method 
 in the study of industrial phenomena. He begins 
 with an exhaustive enumeration of all the factors 
 upon which each phenomenon depends, of each 
 operation to be studied, then, after having recog- 
 nised all the factors at stake, he decides, by experi- 
 ments and observations as precisely as possible, 
 the numerical relations existing between the 
 different facts brought forward. Taylor was 
 thus brought to the establishment of a certain 
 number of rules collectively known under the name 
 of Taylor's system. 
 
 One of the essential items in the cost price of an 
 article is the daily output of the worker. This 
 output depends upon two very important things : 
 the determination of the worker to produce 
 as much as he can and his productive capacity. 
 The workman frequently purposely limits his 
 output because he is afraid of having his wages 
 reduced by his master, and, on the other hand, 
 he realises that his master, more often than not, 
 does not know how much work he can normally 
 
60 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 accomplish. The remedy for these two motives 
 for idleness is to establish by exact measurements 
 the workman's normal output, and to exact a 
 definite task from him. One of the essential 
 points in the system is the creation of a special 
 department for the fixing of the normal task. 
 Moreover, premiums may be allotted for the 
 accomplishment of the normal task. Amongst 
 the premium systems, is the bomis system, invented 
 by Gantt. The workman's wages are divided into 
 two quite distinct parts : a daily wage, which 
 the workman is sure to receive in any case, and 
 whatever his daily output may be. In addition 
 he receives a fixed premium, called " bonus," 
 when he accomplishes, in the day, the total amount 
 of the task which has been pointed out to him as 
 normal. The foremen, on their side, receive a 
 premium for each workman working under their 
 orders, who earns his premium. 
 
 The capacity of a workman's production depends 
 on many circumstances, and particularly on tile 
 nature of the materials placed at his disposal. 
 Hence the necessity for having an office for the 
 especial study of the best methods of working. 
 These methods should be known to the men. 
 Therefore, it is also necessary to have another 
 office for the training of overseers capable of 
 guaranteeing this desideratum. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 61 
 
 F. W. Taylor (born in 1856, died in 1915), was 
 descended from a Philadelphia family ; he was, 
 by turns, apprentice, labourer, master mechanic, 
 then director of a training college, and finally, 
 in 1884, Chief Engineer of the Midvale factories. 
 He took his diploma at the Stevens Institute of 
 Technology. In 1890, he left the Midvale 
 steelworks to become General Director of the 
 Manufacturing Investment Company which 
 manufactured mills for the great chemical in- 
 dustries. He left this Company in 1893, and de- 
 dicated the whole of his time to the introduction of 
 his system of organisation into various industries. 
 F. W. Taylor, says M. Le Ch atelier, was not 
 only a genius, but he was a man of a noble nature, 
 faithful to his friends, devoted to the public good, 
 and in great sympathy with the aspirations of 
 the working classes. Since Taylor's death, an 
 International Committee has been formed for 
 continuing the struggle on behalf of the American 
 engineer's ideas. The active members of the 
 committee are : Mr. Carl Barth, consulting 
 engineer ; Mr. Norris Cooke, director of public 
 works in the city of Philadelphia ; Mr. Dodge, 
 president of the Link Belt Co. of Philadelphia, 
 whose factories are entirely reorganised on 
 Taylor's plans ; Mr. Hathaway, director of the 
 Tabor Manufacturing Co., Philadelphia ; one of 
 
62 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 the first factories to adopt Taylor's methods, 
 and where those engineers, who go to the United 
 States to study Taylor's system, are sent. The 
 secretary of the committee is Miss Frances 
 Mitchell, Boxly, Highland Station, Chestnut Hill, 
 Philadelphia, U.S. 
 
 Let us now examine Taylor's system closely, 
 basing our enquiries on those of M. Le Ch atelier- 
 The complete enumeration of all the determining 
 conditions of no matter what phenomenon, is, 
 in Taylor's opinion, of capital importance. One 
 does not a priori take account of the fact, he says, 
 that all the work of the engineer is rendered 
 useless if the smallest doubt exists as to one of these 
 conditions. Now, workmen do not take systematic 
 note of the determining conditions of their 
 operations. 
 
 Besides, one must know how to measure 
 the dimensions of the phenomenon under observa- 
 tion, as, for example, the distinctive mechanical 
 qualities of a certain steel, the expenditure of 
 energy in the rolling, etc. 
 
 It is thus that Taylor succeeds in establishing 
 the most economical conditions in labour. One of 
 the experimental methods systematically employed 
 by Taylor is that of Chronography. Time is 
 one of the essential elements in the cost price of 
 all individual effort ; it must therefore, be measured 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 63 
 
 like the other factors. This operation occupies a 
 prominent place in the system, more important 
 than those of other elements by reason of the 
 double part it plays : first of all, it helps in the 
 study of experiments ; and it is also the necessary 
 foundation of the system for the payment of 
 the workman. 
 
 One form of Chronography is the application of 
 cinematography to the analysis of very rapid 
 movements, which would escape observations 
 made by the naked eye. One of Taylor's disciples, 
 Mr. Gilbreth, has gone back to Marey's chrono- 
 photographic process, placing on the worker's 
 hand, whilst he works,Ta small incandescent 
 lamp so as to show his movements by a shaft of 
 light . This method goes by the name of cyclegraph . 
 
 M. Le Chatelier says, quite rightly, that, in 
 spite of all these efforts, these attempts all still 
 show a most important gap, the fatigue of the 
 worker is not measured. We are referred back 
 to his declarations. Physiologists will, before 
 long, be able to give us experimental methods, 
 on this point, suited to industrial research. 
 
 Not satisfied with the results of these experi- 
 ments, Taylor took a lot of trouble to translate 
 them by means of algebraic formula. 
 
 The difference, therefore, between Taylor's 
 method and that of other engineers is as follows : 
 
64 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 let us take a particular example, that of leather 
 belts. According to M. Le Chatelier, before 
 Taylor's time, a lot of experiments had already 
 been made with leather belts chiefly with regard 
 to measuring their tenacity. But tenacity is not 
 the only quality needed for the good working of 
 leather belts. It is only after having tabulated 
 the speeds of these belts, the frequency of greasing, 
 their gradual elongation during use, the number 
 of times they fall, and the length of the stoppages 
 thus caused in the work of the shops, that 
 Taylor was able to give the scientific solution of 
 the problem, that is to say, to define the conditions 
 under which the maximum service is obtained 
 with the minimum expenditure. 
 
 Amongst the factors of productivity, work- 
 manship is certainly the most important. 
 
 The capricious behaviour of human motive- 
 power would seem to place this element outside 
 all law, and enable it to escape the control of 
 science, says Le Chatelier. Taylor has demon- 
 strated that the laws discovered by experiments 
 of this nature, and which correspond to the very 
 complex organisation of the human being are 
 subject to a larger number of exceptions than the 
 laws relating to material things. That, however, 
 laws of that kind do exist, which apply to the 
 great majority of people, and which, clearly 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 65 
 
 defined, are a great help in guiding them, we 
 give the following example. Wishing to know 
 the best plan to adopt in reprimanding a workman, 
 Taylor said, that the preference should be given to 
 a fine, without any reproach, the importance of 
 the fine being in proportion to the gravity of the 
 offence. That was the most efficacious plan of 
 action, and at the same time, the least disagreeable. 
 Certain precautions should, however, be taken. 
 The fines should, in no case, be entered in the 
 Principal's cash book, but should go towards 
 supporting some fund, by which the workers 
 benefited towards insurance against accidents, 
 by preference. In this department, measurement 
 cannot be as precise, as in the case of machinery ; 
 it is necessary to draw up statistics, to adopt 
 measures. The psychology of the working man 
 does not appear in our instructions. The expenses 
 incurred by these enquiries are largely repaid 
 by the increase in productivity. 
 
 From these investigations connected with 
 experimental science, M. Le Chatelier passes on to 
 the Psychology of the Workingman and the 
 organisation of labour, following Taylor's plan. 
 Scientific Management includes both scientific 
 experiment and its particular application to the 
 human factor. Here are the essential points 
 of his teaching : 
 
 E 
 
66 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 1. It is incorrect to believe, as the politicians 
 of all countries try to represent, that the 
 workman is a stupid creature, deaf to all 
 intelligent reasoning. According to Taylor, 
 psychology of the working man in no 
 way differs from that of other men. 
 
 2. With modern methods of work, which are 
 very perfect, but also very complicated, 
 it is no longer possible for the workman 
 to discover by intuition, in each particular 
 case, the most advantageous movements 
 of the hand. Their settlement, in the 
 present day, rests with the principals 
 the engineers. It is folly, though it is still 
 often done, to place a workman before a 
 lathe and require him to find out himself 
 how to make the best use of it. That 
 best depends, as Taylor has shewn, upon a 
 dozen different things. It took him 
 twenty-five years to disentangle the most 
 advantageous combinations ; how could a 
 working man, in a few minutes, divine 
 the solution of such a complicated problem ? 
 It is, therefore, indispensable to separate 
 the preparation of the work, an essentially 
 intellectual process, from its accomplish- 
 ment, an essentially manual labour. Ac- 
 cording to Taylor, the methods employed 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 67 
 
 in a workshop should be entirely regulated 
 by a special technical staff, and then taught 
 to the workmen by the same staff. Therein 
 lies an entire revolution in our industrial 
 methods ; very few engineers would possess 
 the actual knowledge necessary for studying 
 their workmen's processes, and fewer still 
 the ability necessary, to put them into 
 practice before them. 
 
 3. Another very important result of Taylor's 
 
 studies has to do with the great advantage of 
 piece-work. The workman sees the exact 
 amount of work accomplished each day ; 
 the size of the task is regulated according to 
 information furnished by previous experience, 
 with a view to determining the best working 
 conditions. 
 
 4. This change in the organisation of labour 
 imposes considerable effort and expense 
 on the management of the factory. But it 
 exacts nothing more from the workman ; 
 less initiative on the one hand, more disci- 
 pline on the other, but not more physical 
 fatigue. But, as these methods considerably 
 augment the production of each workman, 
 the owner is in a position to increase 
 the wages. The assent of the workman 
 is obtained by an increase in wage rising 
 
68 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 from 30 to 100% of the mean rate of wages. 
 
 The adoption of these principles will permit 
 of the doubling or trebling of the production. 
 So that this organisation may be possible, 
 an office for the preparation and distribution 
 of the work in the workshops receives the 
 manager's orders and distributes them to the 
 right workshops. The regulation of piece-work 
 involves the necessity of a new organisation 
 that of statistics. All this necessitates a very 
 numerous staff ; the number of clerks is increased, 
 that of the workmen diminished. That is the 
 outcome of the organisation of labour, according 
 to Taylor's system. 
 
 The social consequences of this system are 
 studied at the close of M. Le Chatelier's article. 
 These consequences have given rise to numerous 
 controversies. The principal criticisms brought 
 forward are : 
 
 1. The increase in production, the essential 
 
 purpose of Taylor's system, can only be 
 obtained by over-working the men ; 
 
 2. The workman is brought down to the level of 
 
 a machine, his intellectual and social 
 position is lowered ; 
 
 3. The monotony of the work, and the absence 
 
 of all intellectual effort, discourages skilled 
 workmen. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 69 
 
 To these objections, Le Chatelier replies. 
 Taylor's system does not increase, but reduces 
 over-work ; this is the opinion of all those who 
 have seen it in operation. The increased pro- 
 duction is entirely due to regulations independent 
 of the workman's actions ; a better supervision 
 of the machinery and belting, a more regular 
 supply of the materials, the employment of 
 better tools, etc. It is, moreover, incorrect to 
 say, that the rate of mortality amongst the 
 workmen is higher than heretofore, as Phila- 
 delphian statistics shew when compared to 
 those of Paris. 
 
 The assertion that the workman is brought 
 down to the level of a machine is incorrect in 
 every particular ; it is the dexterous movements 
 employed in Taylor's method which results in 
 producing the skilled workman. 
 
 Another sentimental objection, says Le Chatelier, 
 may seem more specious. It is sad to see the 
 artistic workman disappear the man capable of 
 exercising all the branches of his calling, of 
 working in stone, in wood, and in metal, and of 
 producing such works of art as adorn our Gothic 
 churches. Why then, not regret the slaves of 
 antiquity ? (Le Chatelier). Did not they build 
 magnificent palaces, temples, and mausoleums, 
 which to this day arouse our admiration ? This is 
 
70 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 true, but the artisans of the Middle Ages dwelt in 
 kennels, without air or light, were badly fed and 
 liable to epidemics. To-day, the working man 
 has a healthy home, is often as well fed as his 
 employer, etc. The specialisation of work and 
 the employment of machinery have given him 
 all these good things. In the course of a century 
 his wealth has increased ten-fold. Taylor invites 
 him to double this again, and people want to oblige 
 him to decline this gift out of respect to a few 
 rather antiquated principles. On the contrary, 
 progress will consist in more intensive methods of 
 production, in reducing the length of the working 
 day to an eight hours' day at once, later on, 
 perhaps, to a six hours' day. 
 
 It is untrue to assert that specialisation, and 
 the constant repetition of the same work disgusts 
 the men. That is to contradict our daily ex- 
 perience, says Le Chatelier. What more mono- 
 tonous than the calling of a forwarding agent, 
 or even that of the head employe in a big firm ? 
 And yet the number of candidates for such berths 
 is enormous, and those privileged to hold them 
 are the objects of envy. Then, the farm la- 
 bourer, each day following the furrows of his 
 plough, does not question the monotony of his 
 work. All his life-long he repeats the process, 
 without being any the worse. According to the 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 71 
 
 experience of competent heads of industries, 
 it would be just the same with workmen. Hardly 
 will you find one in a hundred capable of realising 
 the monotony of his work. The workman per- 
 forms his work without thinking about it, quietly 
 dreaming about his own little affairs, his plans, 
 etc. (see our criticisms below). 
 
 To wind up, Le Ch atelier maintains that 
 Taylor's system will advance more rapidly in 
 the future. The slowness of its development 
 is due to the necessity for perfect accord between 
 the masters and the foreman of the workshops 
 before it can be got into working order. At 
 present, for two men, both imbued with new 
 doctrines to meet in the same factory, is rare. 
 
 The second article published by the Revue 
 de Metallurgie, is that by C. B. Thomson, 1 Pro- 
 fessor at Harvard University, on the Scientific 
 Organization of Labour, he summarises the principal 
 publications issued up to now, on Taylor's system 
 and gives numerous examples of its industrial 
 application. 
 
 This bibliography by itself forms quite a litera- 
 ture, and includes articles on the theory of scientific 
 management, on its action, its scientific organisa- 
 tion, on railways, on methods, on the human 
 factor in scientific organisation, and on work- 
 
 1 Revue de Metallurgie, Vol. XII, Apdl 1915 pp. 233-315. 
 
72 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 men's syndicates. The most important are 
 those by Taylor himself, notably his Principles 
 of Scientific Management and Shop Management, 
 as well as his Art of Cutting Metals. He draws 
 attention to the prejudice which permits in be- 
 lieving that the improvement in the methods of 
 labour will reduce the number of workmen 
 employed in the industry. This was the com- 
 plaint at one time urged against machinery, 
 yet no one would now abolish the latter. It will 
 be the same with scientific management, the 
 improvements in working methods only bringing 
 passing inconveniences in their train, when de- 
 veloped too rapidly, causing profound distur- 
 bance in the existing economic conditions. 
 
 Thomson thus sums up (according to Kendall), 
 the processes which unite in increasing the work- 
 man's output. 
 
 i. Elementary Analysis of Operations. This 
 systematic study allows of the elimination 
 of useless movements, of the combination 
 of the most advantageous movements, of 
 modifying certain imperfections in the 
 machinery. 
 
 For example, in a factory for lighting apparatus, 
 it sufficed to carry the pieces to be manipulated 
 to the operator, arranged in a box, and placed 
 20 centimetres from his left hand, in order to 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 73 
 
 perceptibly increase his output ; until then, his 
 pieces had been scattered higgledy piggledy 
 round him. 
 
 2. Selection of Workmen. Workmen differ 
 greatly in their aptitude for the same work. 
 These differences may be sufficient to shew 
 a variation of 50% in their output. To 
 take book-binding as an example, it will be 
 granted that a big, strong girl is best 
 suited for the carrying of heavy parcels of 
 books, whilst for gilding, one with very 
 delicate, careful fingers should be chosen. 
 
 3. Training of Workmen. The workman has to 
 be taught the improved methods. 
 
 4. The Employment of Good Tools. 
 5. Stimulants. The workman is incited, by 
 means of a premium which increases his 
 wage, to supply as large an output, as the 
 implements placed at his disposal will permit 
 of. 
 
 According to Carlton's opinion (quoted by Mr. 
 Thomson), up to this point, the scientific manage- 
 ment of labour has only taken the point of view 
 of one of the parties interested into account ; 
 to succeed, it is absolutely necessary that, from the 
 start, there should be complete accord between 
 the masters and men, and this accord can only 
 be obtained by accepting the intervention of 
 
74 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 syndicates, and by admitting workmen's delegates 
 into the Councils of the management. 
 
 The following are the other articles in La 
 Revue de Metallurgie : Annual Report by M. 
 M. L. Cooke, which shews the services rendered 
 by Taylor's method in the administration of a 
 large town ; Mr. Renold's memorandum on the 
 Scientific Management of Factories (I' Organisation 
 scientifique des usines) ; that by Mr. Allingham 
 on the same subject, and finally, that by Mrs. 
 Christine Frederiks relating to the scientific 
 management of a house. Scientific methods may 
 also benefit domestic life. The first thing to be 
 considered is the standardisation of the required 
 movements . Movements should be regulated, 
 Mrs. . Frederiks pleads, even in the washing of 
 dishes. It is useless to lift plates from right to 
 left by crossing one arm over the other. Every- 
 thing one does should be examined so as to settle 
 what is essential and to see if it answers its purpose 
 properly, and without annoyance to the operator. 
 The authoress made use of these methods when 
 organising her model kitchen at Applecroft. 
 She gives the principles upon which she grouped 
 her utensils in relation to the place where they 
 would be used and with reference to their normal 
 use. Secondly, there comes that very important 
 question the fixing of a normal time-table. A 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 75 
 
 list would facilitate the daily and weekly tasks, 
 etc. 
 
 Finally, the normalisation of purchases, of 
 the staff, and of management, have their allotted 
 place. 
 
 The article is most interesting, and contains 
 any amount of excellent advice having for its 
 end the scientific organisation of that most 
 important side of life, the home of the family. 
 
 The only objection which we can make to the 
 system is that the mistress of the house must, 
 herself, be able to direct the work required, no 
 matter what it may be. This specialization 
 in such a number of departments would become 
 too onerous for the mistress and would confine 
 her absolutely to the sphere of the house to the 
 exclusion of all other interests ; it is besides 
 opposed to the evolution of the family in modern 
 society, an evolution which tends to eliminate 
 a host of functions from house management, 
 and to make co-operative duties of those which 
 used to devolve on the house mistress alone. 
 But there is nothing to be said against the various 
 groups co-operatives for example, whose spheres 
 extend beyond the narrow limits of a family 
 profiting by these Councils. Also, family life 
 itself should be Taylorised in the sense of order, 
 economy and better management. 
 
76 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 2. THE OPINION THAT SHOULD BE FORMED OF 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT. 
 
 To resume, after this account, our personal 
 opinion as to Taylor's system. This system is 
 most certainly indisputably scientific in character, 
 and all those who desire, henceforth, to study the 
 organisation of labour, will be unable to ignore 
 his system. He came at the right time, and 
 although Taylor was ignorant of much of the 
 scientific work which had been accomplished 
 in the physiological laboratories of Europe, 
 thanks to his personal experiences he achieved 
 distinct results, of which many are only a confirma- 
 tion of general laws established by scientific 
 research. It seems certain that from the 
 technological point of view, he was entirely 
 successful, and the proof lies in the enormous 
 augmentation of production which he was, in 
 almost every case, able to obtain. This is no 
 small result, and it is indisputably true. But 
 here our eulogy ends. To praise Taylor's system 
 and to desire its general introduction into the 
 industrial world one would have to feel sure on 
 many points, of which several are still obscure, 
 and others are debatable, if not to be condemned. 
 Certain it is that the scientific management of 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 77 
 
 labour is an inevitable necessity, but it remains 
 to be proved whether Taylor's system, the 
 first to be advocated in this field of enquiry, is 
 just the very best system, that which was impa- 
 tiently awaited by all those who wished to see 
 science penetrate into the region of industrial 
 labour, in order that it might be reorganised for 
 the great benefit of society. 
 
 From our point of view, we can charge Taylor's 
 system with three great faults : 
 
 i. As the most convinced partisans of Taylor's 
 system affirm, a big gap exists in Taylor's 
 estimates, which is the absence of scientific 
 information concerning the fatigue of the 
 workers. Such information as does exist 
 depends upon the statements of the workers, 
 which are unreliable. This gap may be 
 imagined ; the calculation of fatigue is a 
 very delicate process and can only be 
 attempted by physiologists trained in such 
 studies. Now, that was the first thing that 
 should have been done, seeing that Taylor's 
 system upsets the usual habits, changes 
 the movements, quickens them in some 
 cases, and imprints upon the human motor 
 an absolutely new action. It is not enough 
 that, in certain cases, this factor has been 
 taken into consideration. Thus Earth 
 
78 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 succeeded in formulating the laws of the 
 relationship between labour and fatigue ; 
 Gilbreth noticed that the two-wheeled 
 barrow causes less fatigue, because it is 
 better balanced, than the one-wheeled 
 barrow, etc. But, as Le Chatelier says, 
 these statements are insufficient. In his 
 book, The Hitman Motor, Amar also 
 considers that Taylor's method is insuffi- 
 cient from the physiological point of view, 
 the learned American not having had the 
 means by which to estimate the amount 
 of fatigue, to know the speed, the rhythm, 
 the effort which are exacted by even the 
 smallest expenditure of energy, in a maxi- 
 mum of labour. And yet, a few pages 
 below, Amar asserts that " the art of 
 working is thus constituted and firmly 
 established on scientific foundations." 
 As a matter of fact, this assertion goes far 
 beyond the facts, the question of fatigue 
 being essential and the charge of over- 
 work having been, in a great number of 
 cases, brought against Taylor and his 
 disciples. 
 
 With a view to solving this problem, 
 an International Committee made up partly 
 of physiologists and partly of engineers, 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 79 
 
 and of absolutely independent sociologists 
 appointed by a recognised official Institution 
 of repute should be charged with the 
 examination of fatigue amongst men 
 employed in the various industries that 
 have adopted Taylor's system. It is only 
 after enquiry, and in the event of a favour- 
 able answer, that Taylor's system will 
 deserve the name of " scientific," and 
 may be considered to be free from all 
 defect. 
 
 This system offers no guarantee to the 
 workman in that which relates to his own 
 advantage. It is true that, at the present 
 time, the workman enjoys a rise in wage 
 and a reduction in his hours of work, when 
 he adopts Taylor's system, but it is to be 
 feared that when everybody is working 
 under this S3^stem of scientific management, 
 these advantages may suddenly cease. 
 The fear of general discontent, say even a 
 strike, might not suffice to insure the 
 continuance of the increased wages. There- 
 fore, here again, some reform is required, 
 and it is necessary as Carlton (quoted by 
 Thomson), insists that workmen's syndi- 
 cates should take part in the councils of the 
 management. 
 
8o THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 3. The theory of " premiums," which is part of 
 
 the system itself, makes it probable that, 
 
 to a certain extent, over- work is almost 
 
 sure to prevail. In order to urge the 
 
 workman to produce his maximum output 
 
 Taylor makes use of too strong a stimulant, 
 
 an infallible one even, that of direct gain 
 
 attached to increased labour. As the 
 
 feeling of fatigue is not irrevocable, and may 
 
 be concealed by increased effort, the 
 
 workman may rapidly reach the limits of 
 
 over-pressure and be unaware of it until 
 
 the moment when, quite exhausted and good 
 
 for nothing, he is turned out of the factory 
 
 which had dazzled him with visions of the 
 
 most extraordinary and attractive benefits. 
 
 This reproach has been formulated against 
 
 Taylor's system of scientific management, 
 
 many times, by its adversaries (" the 
 
 premium of over-pressure "). 
 
 The principles of this system are, moreover, 
 
 opposed to those of the progress of hygiene, 
 
 which tends to become more and more general 
 
 even in the case of individuals. This freedom of 
 
 the individual to overwork, is opposed to eugenics 
 
 and to all those sciences which have for their aim 
 
 the betterment of the race. Finally, the reward 
 
 to those who work the best is not a proceeding 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 81 
 
 to be advocated from the moral point of view, for 
 those who are trained on such a principle make 
 it the mainspring of their actions under other 
 conditions. 
 
 Such are the fundamental faults of the system, 
 and doubtless many others would be discovered 
 in it, were it to be examined on the spot. On the 
 other hand, we think many of the attacks levelled 
 against the system are worthless. " It degrades 
 the human being, because of the monotony of the 
 mechanical actions which it enforces," etc. 
 That is an argument of the ignorant and merits 
 no attention. Neither can the monotony of the 
 work itself, and the absence of any intellectual 
 element, be considered as criticisms. Le Ch atelier 
 refutes such charges, but we cannot, in this matter, 
 agree with his point of view. It is clear that his 
 example of the rate of mortality amongst the 
 workmen in Philadelphia being no higher than 
 in Paris, is no argument. On the other hand, 
 if one does not regret the abolition of slavery 
 (see p. 69), that is not solely on account of 
 the unhealthy conditions under which the slaves 
 lived, but chiefly on account of the conditions 
 under which the work was performed (labour 
 " by compulsion "). With regard to the objection 
 to the employment of forwarding agent, or of the 
 office clerk, it is in the bitter struggle for existence, 
 
 F 
 
82 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 and in the fact that many men are unqualified 
 for any other form of employment, that the 
 true reasons nust be looked for to account for 
 the number of applicants for these posts, and not 
 in any love of monotonous work. 
 
 Would that all labour might be as monotonous 
 as that carried on in the bosom of nature, amidst 
 its ever changing charms, and its sensations 
 of life, liberty and beauty. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the monotony of labour 
 is not a reproach that can touch Taylor's system, 
 any more than the absence of the intellectual 
 element and the increase of discipline with the 
 reduction of individuality and spontaneity. The 
 charge of monotony may be brought against all 
 manufacturing industries the monotony only 
 differs in degree. That fault is irreducible, like 
 that which relates to the machines themselves. 
 Industrial labour is, by its very essence, monoton- 
 ous, and very unintellectual, tending inevitably 
 towards an ever greater and ever more complete 
 automatism. The physiologists of industry are 
 well aware of this. They recognise the difference 
 between manual labour, such as is taught in the 
 schools, from the pedagogic point of view, and that 
 which is performed by the workman, from the 
 industrial point of view. In the first case, it is a 
 question of educative action, bringing pressure 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 83 
 
 to bear on the psycho-motor centres, of which 
 the hand is the only trusty instrument. Also 
 it would seem necessary to vary the nature of the 
 work, in order to bring a larger number of brain 
 cells into play and, as soon as the work becomes 
 easy and begins to become automatic, it should 
 be stopped and something fresh commenced. 
 
 It is quite a different question with the work- 
 man. He works continuously at the same craft, 
 always the same, which he brings to the greatest 
 possible point of perfection, and his tendency, 
 desire, and aim, is the greatest possible autonomy. 
 To-day, the friends of the people know quite 
 well that industrial labour cannot be a source of 
 mental evolution for the labourer. This con- 
 viction urges them to further economise the 
 workman's strength, to reduce his hours of work 
 by improving the work itself, and by giving him 
 the consolation of a healthy home in the country, 
 and a training able to supplement the autonomy 
 demanded by his role as an industrial worker, 
 and which the needs of our civilization render 
 absolutely necessary. And it is thus that 
 humanitarian claims, are now, on many points, 
 based on science. 
 
 Thus does Taylor's system present itself to the 
 present writer. We have not stripped it of its 
 scientific character, but we do perceive that it 
 
84 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 exhibits numerous faults and gaps in its concep- 
 tion. Is this system capable of being sufficiently 
 perfected and improved to permit of its some day 
 occupying a leading place in the organisation of 
 labour, or does it, on the contrary, possess fun- 
 damental errors, which will prevent its general 
 acceptance, and condemn it to failure ? Ulterior 
 research can alone enable us to answer these 
 questions. However that may be, this system 
 should, at the present hour, claim the attention 
 of manufacturers, and after the actual crisis 
 through which we are now passing is over, and 
 the need for new enterprise and an accelerated 
 productivity makes itself felt, the scientific 
 organisation of labour will become a greater 
 necessity than ever before. One can only regret 
 that, as yet, scientific methods have not given 
 us the decisive answer we seek, and that the 
 solution of the problem, at present, is only em- 
 pirical. . . In any event, Taylor's system, in 
 spite of its many advantages, should only be 
 applied with great caution and tact, since it is 
 suspected of over-pressure, which may prove 
 harmful to the race. 
 
 At the time of going to press with this book, 
 we note the recently published work by J. M. 
 Lahy. 1 This writer advances many objections 
 
 1 J. M. Lahy, Le systeme Taylor et la physiologic an travail 
 professionnel, Paris 1916, Matton, 198 pages. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 85 
 
 to Taylor's system, his conception of labour 
 being spoilt by a threefold error : psychological, 
 sociological, and industrial ; he improves me- 
 thods, not with a view to the well-being of the 
 workman, but in order to insure the super-pro- 
 duction of each. Work, in the factories re- 
 organised according to Taylor's methods, is 
 based upon constraint and discipline, which 
 are the opposites of invention and lead to fatigue ; 
 the workman is only looked upon as part of the 
 system. The abstract question of scientifically 
 determining the worker's fatigue has no place 
 in his system, and in as far as workers are con- 
 cerned, he pre-assumes them to be idle. The 
 problem of selection, of which Taylor thinks so 
 much, does not really aim at superior workman- 
 ship, but only at the result of movements, so that 
 Taylor has not set before each industry the double 
 criterion of superior workmanship with minimum 
 fatigue, though this would be the claim made for 
 really scientific experiments. Taylor's methods 
 shew progress in some respects, but the work 
 is not produced more perfectly, it is only more 
 rapid. 1 It is, after all, the yield of the worker 
 which regulates the duration and intensity of the 
 work, and when all is said and done the results 
 
 1 This greater speed in work, the quality of which is in no 
 respect lowered, is nevertheless a real improvement, but 
 that alone should not satisfy us. 
 
86 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 are often disappointing. Taylor employed, for 
 human labour, the same tests that he used for 
 mechanical work, which is a mistake, because of 
 fatigue, which intervenes in the action of the 
 human motor. His disciples, like himself, only 
 examined this problem theoretically. Taylor knew 
 nothing of physiology, his study of motion is 
 far from being as precise as Marey's. 1 Inventions 
 said to be by him or his disciples were really 
 Marey's. His system contains numerous gaps, 
 it is incomplete, it has not entirely transformed 
 the organisation of labour ; his system does 
 take the workman into account, but it leads to 
 the depreciation of the skilled worker. His 
 system of wages and premiums is an encourage- 
 ment to over-production, and consequent over- 
 fatigue. Of psychic problems, of all that concerns, 
 for example, the rhythm of labour, and rest, 
 both essentially individual matters, Taylor was 
 ignorant. Many industries he did not study 
 
 1 It is not without interest to remember all that we owe to 
 Marey, the inventor of the Graphic method and of Chroma- 
 photography. Lahy reminds us that side by side with his 
 classical works, known to all physiologists, Marey tried 
 some experiments on industrial labour, and promoted other 
 researches in that domain in his laboratory in the pare des 
 Princes or in the Institute that bears his name. More 
 especially see : E. J. Marey, Travail de I'homme dans les 
 professions Manuelles. Revue d'H>gienc alinuntaire, 1904, 
 p. 197. -Id. L'eco: : ,:0ii:ic de travail et I'elasiiciiv. La Revue 
 dcs Idees, 14 May, 1904. Ch. Fremont, Etude experimental 
 du yivetage. Soc. d 'encouragement pour 1'Industrie nationale, 
 Paris, 1906. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 87 
 
 at all. Also, Taylor invented nothing essential, 
 he only improved certain things. The chrono- 
 graphy of elementary movements, which is the 
 original idea of the system, is not sufficient and 
 would not be able to replace the terrestial chrono- 
 graphy previously in use. 
 
 Many of these charges can be substantiated, 
 and we have already stated our opinion on the 
 subject of fatigue. Still, Lahy talks of an 
 increase of fatigue as though it were a proved 
 and indisputable fact. We cannot share his 
 opinion when he pretends that the chronography 
 of elementary movements exacts a degrading 
 submission on the part of the workman which he 
 would not accept. Now, says Lahy, if the various 
 measures so lauded by Taylor are not irrevocably 
 united, we are no longer in the presence of 
 Taylor's system. We consider that Taylor's 
 system is incomplete, many industries have 
 never been studied, the part played by fatigue 
 has not been estimated. That is an undeniable 
 fact. But those who follow Taylor may correct 
 the errors of his system and perfect it. It is, 
 says Le Chatelier, 1 for the physiologists to 
 determine the role played by fatigue. Taylor 
 did what he could. Besides, Lahy thinks, too, 
 
 1 J. Araar, Organisation physiologique du travail, 1917 
 Paris, Dunod et Pinat. Preface by M. Le Chatelier. 
 
88 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 that in what Taylor did, there was no preconceived 
 intention of over-working the men ; his work 
 was absolutely sincere. 
 
 Taylor himself said that scientific management 
 did not necessarily lead to a great invention nor 
 to the discovery of startling new facts ; it 
 consists in a certain combination of elements not 
 yet realized, and in the grouping of analysed and 
 classified ideas in the form of laws and regulations 
 constituting a science. 
 
 We will conclude by saying that no political 
 party should derive any benefit from the scientific 
 management of labour, but society as a whole. 
 Taylor's system, completed on some points, 
 improved in others, put into harmony with the 
 distribution of energy and with psychology, 
 will only receive a definite sanction on the day 
 when it puts itself in agreement with the economic 
 organisations of labour, such as the workman's 
 syndicates and the co-operatives. 
 
 These problems will continue to be of essential 
 importance until that far distant day when 
 machines will be able to undertake the labour 
 until now accomplished by man. But at the 
 present time all scientific experiments concerning 
 the management of labour agree in according 
 to the " human " factor the preponderating role. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 89 
 
 3. THE FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOL IN THE 
 DETERMINATION OF APTITUDES. 
 
 We are still dealing with the same question 
 the utilization of labour, and the fatigue it 
 causes, when we turn our attention to the experi- 
 ments which, for the last twenty-five years, have 
 had the child as their object and have led to the 
 founding of a new department of science, 
 Pedology (Science of study of the Child). At 
 the International Congress of Hygiene and 
 Demography held at Brussels in 1903, I insisted 
 on a preliminary medical examination of working 
 men (see above) with the object of gauging their 
 aptitudes and of guiding them in their choice of a 
 career. All those who have mistaken their path 
 in life become an easy prey to over-work ; their 
 productivity is greatly reduced and, as a conse- 
 quence, their prosperity. In this unsuitability 
 for certain occupations may be detected some of 
 the causes of over-work and social unproductivity. 
 
 This point of view has become considerably 
 more general than it used to be, and the study of 
 pedology has shewn us the necessity for carrying 
 back this examination to a much earlier age, of 
 making it obligatory in preparatory schools or 
 even earlier still, and of bringing it to bear in 
 
90 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 every department of life, physically, intellectually, 
 and morally. The medico-pedagogic inspection, 
 such as has been carried out in the schools of most 
 countries, for some years now, is a step forward 
 towards the solution of the problem, but will 
 not be sufficient in itself. The question is, 
 as a matter of fact, the determining of aptitudes 
 and inaptitudes, and those which a medical 
 examination is able to disclose, only constitute 
 one side of the examination (organs of sense, 
 growth, physical constitution, maladies, in short 
 only the authropometric and pathological points 
 of view). The vast field of intellectual aptitudes, 
 properly so called, artistic and technical aptitudes, 
 remains unexplored. 
 
 As regards the two first groups we will refer 
 the reader to our books, 1 previously published 
 on this subject. As in this chapter we only 
 propose to deal with the work of the artisan, we 
 shall only examine aptitudes of a technical order. 
 
 1 See especially : La Revue Psychologique, published by us 
 since 1908 (Brussels) ; les Travaux du premier Corgres 
 international de Pedologie (the Work of the first international 
 Congress of Pedology) which met at Brussels in 1911, and 
 whose two volumes we were instrumental in publishing, as also 
 the publication of the International Faculty of Pedology 
 Faculte Internationale de Pedologie) of Brussels. This institu- 
 tion of which we undertook the management is a school for 
 higher education especially intended for the initiation of 
 modern teachers into all the sciences and technology of the 
 child. Subsequent events in Belgium have forced as to close 
 this institution, but with the firm intention of re-opening 
 it some day. 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 91 
 
 The present state of the science of pedology 
 only requires that tentative measurements of a 
 special kind should be taken, not only in the 
 primary schools, but also in the technical schools 
 (Industrial Training Colleges). The first are 
 intended for those pupils who have not yet chosen 
 a career, and who put out feelers in every 
 direction. It is in these schools that aptitudes 
 are awakened. It is time that the greater or 
 less degree of skill shewn by the pupils during 
 their studies, should serve as a guide to intelligent 
 and competent teachers, but the estimate thus 
 formed is insufficient by itself, and the present 
 progress of science is opposed to a purely empirical 
 opinion. In every domain, empiricism must 
 inevitably be replaced by scientific information. 
 This is a universal law, the realization of which 
 ensures progress. Now, at this moment, there 
 exist a series of measurements, possible experi- 
 ments by which we can take the measure of all 
 the senses which intervene in the various mechani- 
 cal actions : the diverse forms and degrees of 
 tangible sensitiveness, of sensitiveness to pressure, 
 of the sense of resistance, of precision of movements, 
 of their speed, of the various forms of the kinesthetic 
 sense (muscular sense). These senses may be 
 described under the general name of " mechanical 
 senses. ' ' 
 
92 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 Let us to these add sight, with all the elements, 
 which includes : the sense of proportion, sensitive- 
 ness to form, colour, light, perspective. In passing 
 on to the higher psychic qualities, we see the 
 enormous importance of the power of attention, 
 of a technical memory, and of mechanical imagina- 
 tion, where there is a question of invention. 
 One must not ignore the value of design, of model- 
 ling, of wood-carving, of sculpture, and finally of 
 taste, and the aesthetic sense (decoration), which 
 plays a preponderating part in the art-worker's 
 labours. All these faculties, including those 
 which want of space prevents our enumerating 
 here, maybe examined, studied, gauged, and their 
 diverse combinations go to the making of those 
 complicated powers which we call aptitudes. 
 What should we say of a society wherein everyone 
 should have followed the line of his tastes, of his 
 leanings and aptitudes, where each would occupy 
 the place best suited to him, and wherein the 
 various occupations were allotted to the " most 
 apt " ? Such a society would be reformed 
 from top to bottom, in the sense of greater equity, 
 greater productivity, and greater happiness. 
 
 This principle of " the most apt " should 
 regulate our society of the future. 'This principle 
 is not that of equality, but justice is not the 
 equivalent of complete equality. Justice is 
 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 93 
 
 opposed, in any case, to the extremes of inequality 
 to real injustice, such as one sees in the present 
 day. 
 
 We should like to formulate a second resolution 
 (the first being the scientific examination of Tay- 
 lor's system), and that is to see that the " science 
 of aptitudes " is taught, forming a chapter in 
 individual experimental psychology, and pene- 
 trating into all those institutions whose duty it is 
 to train our technical and industrial workers of 
 the future, as well as the workers in art, and 
 that with the object of discovering real talents 
 and of directing them into those channels which 
 shall be the most favourable to themselves and 
 to society. 
 
94 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 III 
 THE POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK. 
 
 I. THE VALUATION OF THE POWER AND WORK OF 
 THE RIGHT HAND AND THE LEFT. 
 
 The Anthropometric Comparison of the Sexes. 
 
 The problem of right-handedness and left- 
 handedness far surpasses the limits of muscular 
 power ; it constitutes a chapter in cerebral 
 psycho-physiology. But the most noticeable 
 fact, that which in the first blush claims general 
 attention, is certainly the different powers con- 
 stantly exhibited between the two hands, with the 
 result that most people are " right-handed," 
 and a very insignificant minority " left-handed." 
 
 Here, we shall only examine their difference 
 in strength. The following chapters will deal 
 with other points, and, for the various questions 
 touching right-handedness and left-handedness, 
 we will refer the reader to former publications. 1 
 
 1 J. L. loteyko, Theorie psycho-physiologique de la droiterie ; 
 Revue philosophique, juin et juillct 1916, and V. Kipiani, 
 Ambidextrie, 103 p., Lebeque, Brussels, Alcan, Paris, 1912. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 95 
 
 We must remember that asymmetry has not 
 only to do with movement, but also extends to 
 the various sensorial and psychic functions. 
 Thus, Van Biervliet, 1 when experimenting on 
 the students of the University of Ghent, discovered 
 in the muscular sense, in sharpness of vision, 
 and of hearing, and sensitiveness of touch, a 
 degree of asymmetry, which he calculated at 
 one tenth. 
 
 If, he says, we denote by the number ten the 
 sensitiveness of the more developed side, which 
 is the right side in the case of the right-handed 
 man, and the left in the case of the left-handed) 
 then the number nine will about denote the 
 opposite side. 
 
 In passing on to the question of motor-power, 
 we must distinguish between the test of strength 
 and the test of endurance. The first may be 
 reckoned by the dynamometer, an instrument 
 that registers the momentary effort of the pressure 
 of the hand. It measures the strength of the per- 
 son, his power of making a great effort, but does 
 not calculate the endurance. This latter may be 
 estimated by the use of one of the most scientific 
 processes of measurement, namely, Mosso's ergo- 
 graph, which we ourselves have used in many experi- 
 
 1 Van Biervliet, Bull, de I' A cad. Roy. de Belgique, class 3 
 des Sciences, 1897-1901. 
 
96 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 ments whilst studying different conditions of work. 
 The experiment consists in systematically raising 
 (following the beats of a metronome), a weight 
 (from 2-5 kilograms), by means of the flexion 
 of the middle finger. This experiment may be 
 made up to the limit of extreme fatigue. The 
 graphic method allows of the registering of the 
 extent (height) to which it is raised, and an easy 
 calculation (multiply the total height to which 
 it is raised by the weight), gives the amount of 
 mechanical work performed in kilogramme-metres, 
 whilst the time taken to produce complete fatigue 
 is an indication of individual endurance. These 
 two proofs are, therefore, very different in kind, 
 and it would be interesting to make parallel 
 studies of the behaviour of different people in 
 this respect. These comparative experiments 
 have been made in Belgium, a country where the 
 number of left-handed people seems to be con- 
 siderable ; far in excess of the generally accepted 
 number which is from 2-3%. 
 
 As regards the measurement of strength by the 
 dynamometer, my experiments on 140 students of 
 both sexes at the University of Brussels 1 shewed 
 that the stronger side is to the weaker side 
 as 1,000 to 841 and this as much amongst the 
 
 1 J. loteyko, Mesure de la force dynaniometrique des deux 
 mains, amongst 140 students of the Brussels University. Me- 
 moires de la Societe d'anthropologie de Bruxelles, 1903-4. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 97 
 
 right-handed as the left-handed students, in 
 other words, the figure which we propose to call 
 the dynamometric sign, seems to be constant, 
 even though the average of a sufficiently large 
 group of subjects is taken. This average is 51 
 kilograms for the stronger hand, and 43 kilograms 
 for the weaker. 
 
 In this figure we include students of both sexes. 
 The difference between the two sides is, therefore, 
 an average of 16%, when it is a question of the 
 test of strength. 
 
 Let us examine some other figures relating to 
 dynamometric power. 
 
 Dynamometric Strength of young people of 
 about twenty years of age (Belgian). 
 
 Difference be- 
 Quetelet (1834) 
 
 39 ' 
 
 
 tween the two 
 hands, 2 Kg.i. 
 loteyko (1903) (Right 51. Kg. 4] Difference 
 Students (Left 43. Kg.ojS Kg4. 
 
 loteyko (1908) _ 
 
 Students in Knt 52. Kg.o nee 
 
 Normal schoolsl Left 47- Kg. 5 i 4 Kg. 5 .^ ' 
 
 This table shews several important facts : there 
 has been a marked increase of strength since 
 Quetelet's time, which may be set down to a 
 good physical education. 
 
98 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 In the second place the want of symmetry 
 has also considerably increased, and this is more 
 marked amongst the students of the University 
 than amongst the pupils in the normal schools. 
 The degree of asymmetry also increases with the 
 age of the children ; Schuyten, who verified this 
 fact, is alarmed at it, seeing that it is correlative 
 to an absence of symmetry in all the organs 
 and all the functions. 
 
 As regards the power of endurance or of 
 resistance to fatigue some work was done, 
 under our advice, by Schouteden, 1 who experi- 
 mented on 1 8 male and 7 female students in 
 the Brussels University pupils in our course of 
 experimental psychology. The interesting thing 
 is, that the product of mechanical work of the two 
 sides (ergographic sign) is the same amongst the 
 right-handed and left-handed workers, if the 
 general average is taken. By including the 25 
 cases in a common measure, a difference of 20% 
 is obtained in favour of the stronger side (4 
 kilogrammes 562, and 3 kilogrammes 246). 
 
 The result of these experiments is that the degree 
 of asymmetry is not identical for these different 
 tests. 
 
 It is 10% lower for the various senses (muscular, 
 
 1 H. Schouteden, Ergographie de la Main dvoite et de la 
 main gauche. Annales de la Societe Roy. des Sciences Nied. 
 et nat. de Bruxelles, XIII, 1904. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 99 
 
 tactile, visual and auditory). It rises markedly 
 in the test of strength to 16% ; and it mounts 
 at a considerable and disproportionate rate in 
 the test of endurance or resistance to fatigue 
 viz., 29%. The table below represents these 
 results. 
 
 Bi-manual index (degrees of asymmetry) 
 (STUDENTS). 
 
 Table 
 
 Sensorial 
 
 Index 
 
 Sensitiveness of touch 
 muscle 
 sight I 
 
 difference 
 '- Van Biervliet 
 
 hearing ) 
 
 10% 
 
 Index of Strength J. loteyko 16% 
 
 Index of Resistance to fatigue H. Schouteden 29% 
 (Endurance) 
 
 W r e will not generalise on these results ; the 
 different co-efficients may vary according to 
 circumstances, but it seems probable that the 
 tendency of the phenomena would remain the 
 same. 
 
 This difference of strength and of endurance, 
 between the two hands, is, therefore, very con- 
 siderable amongst even students who do no 
 manual work. And we must not lose sight of the 
 fact that this is only one method * by which, 
 in certain cases, individual differences may 
 
 1 Van Biervliet alone asserts that the bilateral relation 
 of sensibilities remains constant for each individual, even. 
 
ioo THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 acquire a much higher rate. Those who have made 
 experiments of this nature must often have been 
 struck by the inert aspect of the left hand, in the 
 case of many people. Besides, they say : "I 
 can do nothing with that hand ! that doesn't 
 count." 
 
 In our opinion, these results should be verified 
 by the examination of the strength and powers of 
 endurance amongst artisans in different industries, 
 in those which require the use of only one hand 
 and in those which are ambidextrous. We 
 should thus obtain a better utilisation of physical 
 aptitudes. We might even go in for individual 
 training, and, by suitable exercises, correct 
 any excessive asymmetry, 
 
 We will now compare the degree of muscular 
 asymmetry amongst men and amongst women. 
 
 According to Klippel, Pitres, Ferrari, d' Almeida 
 de Roche, etc., the woman has a greater tendency 
 towards the equalisation of the two sides, which 
 may even lead to the predominance of the left 
 hand. It is for that reason that Klippel calls 
 the right .cerebral hemisphere, the feminine brain, 
 and the left cerebral hemisphere, the masculine 
 brain. D'Almeida de Roche considers that 
 woman is functionally left-handed, whilst man is 
 right-handed. Under the influence of great 
 fatigue, produced by a protracted use of the 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 101 
 
 ergograph, the predominance of the right side in 
 man, and of the left side in woman, clearly 
 appears. 
 
 According to Ferrari, 1 the predominance of 
 the left hand is most seen under ergographic 
 experiments. Ferrari's female cases are of the 
 most use as regards the work done by the right 
 hand, and with the dynamometer, they exhibit 
 greater strength on that side. But with the 
 ergograph it is just the opposite : the flexors of 
 the left hand possess very considerable powers of 
 endurance, much greater, comparatively, than is 
 the case with men. 
 
 The ergogram given by the left hand is not 
 only greater than that furnished by the right, 
 but the woman has no sensation of fatigue with 
 the left ; women can, at command, retrace a new 
 curve with their left hands, possessing the charac- 
 teristics of the curve made by the right hand. 
 
 Now, let us compare the sexual signs of strength 
 and of powers of resistance in the two sexes. 
 
 As regards the sexual signs of strength, measured 
 by the dynamometer, (the general comparison 
 between a woman's and a man's strength), it is, 
 according to our calculations, 570-1,000, that is, 
 a difference of 43%. 
 
 1 Ferrari, Ricerche ergografiche nella douna, Rivista speri- 
 mentale di Freniatria, XXIV 1898. 
 
102 'THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 As to the sexual signs of the powers of re- 
 sistance, measured by the ergograph (the general 
 comparison between a woman's powers of 
 endurance in work, and those of a man), it is 
 639-1,000, that is a difference of 36%, according 
 to Schouteden's experiments. 
 
 The result of these experiments is, that the 
 ergographic power is proportionally more developed 
 amongst women than amongst men. Amongst 
 women, their powers of endurance when at work 
 give them the strength for momentary effort ; 
 but woman is more able to produce a 
 sustained moderate effort than to make a great 
 momentary effort. 
 
 These experimental conclusions agree with 
 Mosso's statements. The size of a muscle is a 
 distinct thing from its capacity to furnish a large 
 amount of work over a long period ; it will 
 enable a man to raise a heavier weight, but it will 
 not enable him to lift a moderate weight a greater 
 number of times. The different results which 
 are observable amongst women and amongst 
 men, betwen the two methods of the quantitative 
 reckoning of mucular strength, therefore, furnish 
 us with a means of appreciating the qualitative 
 difference which exists between the two sexes 
 from the point of view of strength : as oft 
 repeated moderate effort suits the woman better 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 103 
 
 than a maximun effort made all at once. This 
 idea, which may be applied to industrial labour, 
 acquires quite a peculiar interest at the present 
 time, when women's labour has become so much 
 more general. We see the necessity of a most 
 careful selection of working women with regard 
 to their muscular powers, for individual differences 
 are very clearly marked. 
 
 Ever since 1899, we have insisted on the absence 
 of a complete correlation between the dynamo- 
 metric test and the ergographic test, even from the 
 point of view of the individual. 
 
 This idea is in perfect accord with other observa- 
 tions which clearly establish the fact that the 
 woman has greater powers of endurance than the 
 man, even from the absolute point of view. Hence 
 the quotient of mortality amongst women is less 
 than that amongst men, except during certain 
 periods of life ; 16 women of 103 years of age 
 may be reckoned against one man of the same age. 
 
 At all ages there are more women than men, 
 although more boys than girls are born. At the 
 end of the first year, of 100,000 born alive of both 
 sexes, the difference in favour of the female sex 
 is 2,677, an d tms difference attains its maximum, 
 6,739, at the age of 67 years. Certain Insurances 
 which grant pensions, increase the annual pre- 
 mium payable by women by 50%. There is an 
 
104 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 excess in masculine births and an excess in fe- 
 minine life. 
 
 Other proofs of this are supplied by the very 
 causes which determine sex. 
 
 Amongst these causes there is one, the im- 
 portance of which is sufficiently well proved. 
 It is recognised in the animal world, as well as 
 in the human, that the determination of sex is 
 made under the influence of nutritive conditions, 
 and that good conditions favour the production of 
 the feminine type. The statistics collected by 
 Rene Worms x in France, are very significant in 
 this respect. He studied, not only the cases of 
 children born alive, but also of still-born children ; 
 these latter had never been included in statistics, 
 which led to the latter being incorrect. 
 
 The theory of nutrition enables us to take into 
 account the feebleness of the male as well as the 
 excess of masculine births. Nutrition being 
 dependent on economic conditions, the con- 
 necting link between biological and social pheno- 
 mena was seized. According to Worms, the 
 progress of wealth and general well-being reduces 
 both the birth-rate and the number of male births. 
 The poor departments of France (Lozere, Mor- 
 bihan) shew an equality in grown-up males. In 
 
 1 R. Worms, La sexualite dans les naissances 
 Vol. de 237 p, Paris 1912, Giard and Brierc. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 105 
 
 Paris the excess of males falls to the minimum 
 when the parents are of the same age, whilst it 
 rises again when the disparity of age between 
 husband and wife is greater. It is higher 
 amongst working men than amongst employers. 
 It went up slightly after the war of 1870. To 
 these returns, we will add that the figures we have 
 had occasion to collect during the present world- 
 war, shew a larger excess of male births than is 
 usual. 
 
 We*l before Worms, Niceforo, the Italian, 1 
 seems, in his book on the poorer classes, which 
 was published in 1905, to partly maintain the 
 same thesis. William J. Thomas (1897) also 
 considered that the poor populations shewed a 
 larger proportion of male births than the wealthy. 
 Raseri proved that in years of famine and of war, 
 more boys than girls were born. 
 
 Worms' statistics are, nevertheless, the most 
 complete, and justify the construction of the 
 nutrition theory on solid grounds. How are 
 these facts to be explained which seem to be 
 opposed to the ordinary belief that the man has, 
 as a rule, greater strength than the woman ? 
 If the woman, says Worms, is born with more 
 abundant alimentary reserves, that would facili- 
 
 1 A. Niceforo, Les Classes pauvres. Recherches c.nlhro- 
 pologiques ct socialcs. Vol. dc 244 p. Paris 1905 Giard and 
 Briere. 
 
106 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 tate her existence, but it would restrain her from 
 an activity which might increase her powers 
 and her social productiveness. Selection is 
 more severe for man and, at the same time, more 
 useful to him. 
 
 De Greef (Brussels), struck by these results, 
 has gone as far as to say, that the sex which is 
 pretended to be the weaker, is really the stronger, 
 it has the greater powers of resistance to the 
 forces which destroy life ; it is also the more 
 difficult to produce ; it requires the most 
 advantageous conditions. Zoologists consider 
 that the female is the strong sex, and that the male 
 is the beautiful one. 
 
 Let us examine this opinion and put ourselves 
 the question of finding out if the female sex can 
 really be called " strong." 
 
 The answer must be supplied by physiology, 
 and not by sociology, or even zoology. A 
 greater " vitality " is not the equivalent of 
 strength. And besides, the word " vitality " is 
 not well chosen ; we are dealing with longevity, 
 with " viability," as it were. Strength and 
 longevity might even be opposed to one another: 
 Let us consult anthropometric results. 
 
 The figures given below represent the female 
 quantities expressed in masculine hundredths. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 107 
 
 Height and weight of the body 88-5 to 94 
 
 (from 100). 
 
 Weight of the brain, 90 (Broca is different). 
 Weight of skeleton (femur), 62-5. 
 CO. 2 exhaled in 24 hours 64-5 (day labourer), 
 
 (Andral and Gavarret 1843). 
 Vital Capacity (18 years), 72-6 (Pagliani, 1876). 1 
 Force of pressure on dynamometer (hands) 
 
 57-1 (labourer, loteyko). 
 Force of traction on dynamometer (bringing 
 the muscles of the back in play) 52-6 
 (Quetelet, 1869). 
 Test of power of resistance to fatigue (ergograph) 
 
 63 (Schouteden) . 
 
 This table shews that, in a general way, the 
 woman is to the man, from the physical point of 
 view, as 80 to 100, which is what Manouarier also 
 affirms, but the co-efficients are very unequal 
 according to the information given. The result 
 is the lowest where it relates to momentary effort 
 measured by the dynamometer (57% and even 
 52%) : the strength of the man is almost double 
 that of the woman. This last test is charac- 
 teristic of strength ; it necessitates a sharp, 
 sudden effort, an energetic and rapid discharge of 
 nervous energy. This is an attribute of the 
 masculine sex. 
 
 1 By Testing respiratory organs by the spirometer. 
 
io8 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 The facts will appear still more significant when 
 we examine the development of dynamometric 
 force in connection with the age of children. 
 Girls are weaker than boys at all ages, but the 
 difference is slight up to the age of n years, and 
 it increases steadily after that age. The difference 
 in the curves for boys and girls, become more and 
 more accentuated as they approach the age of 
 puberty. Furthermore, the girls' strength ceases 
 to increase to any extent in certain curves, after 
 the age of 14 years. 
 
 And if we compare the development of 
 muscular strength with those of other anthropo- 
 metric aptitudes, we discover other differences 
 that are no less characteristic. The difference in 
 weight and in stature between the adult man 
 and woman, is about 10% in favour of the man. 
 But at one given point of growth (towards the 
 period of puberty), girls are superior to boys in 
 this respect. This superiority lasts three years 
 for the stature, and seven years for weight. 
 Now, preponderating strength is never for a 
 moment in their lives, shewn by girls ; Con- 
 sequently, even when the weight and height of girls 
 is greater than that of boys, their muscular strength 
 does not, in consequence, suffer any increase. 
 Muscular strength is, therefore, in certain respects 
 independent of general growth. It is in the 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 109 
 
 highest degree a characteristic of sex. It is at 
 the period of puberty that the difference in 
 muscular strength is accentuated and definitely 
 established. 
 
 Anthropologists, when studying the difference 
 between the sexes must, therefore, not forget this 
 striking fact : in the law of physiological differ- 
 ences, muscular force (momentary effort), con- 
 stitutes a specific characteristic of the masculine 
 sex. To this, one might add the difference in the 
 elevation of the voice. Men of small stature are 
 muscularly stronger than even tall women, 
 and they have deeper voices. The difference in 
 strength is partly because men have larger masses 
 of muscles, and partly to peculiar qualities of their 
 motor system. 
 
 But the woman has, comparatively, more power 
 of resistance. In certain cases this greater power 
 of endurance is absolute, as in resistance to 
 sickness, in her longevity, in the determining 
 cause of sex. In other cases, it is relative, as in 
 the ergographic test. The co-efficient is, in this 
 case, equal to 63%, whereas in the dynamometer 
 
 it is 57%. 
 
 Now, the metabolic (changing) conditions 
 (of nutrition), are quite different in the case 
 of strength, and in the case of " endurance/' 
 The exhibition of strength demands a sharp, 
 
no THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 violent expenditure of energy, and is followed 
 consecutively by exhaustion, during which 
 strength is renewed and nutrition obtained. 
 Thus the action is intermittent, only a limited 
 quantity of nutritious matter being parted with 
 on condition that it is rapidly replaced. These 
 two conditions, the power of acting instan- 
 taneously under a stimulating impulse, and the 
 ability to rapidly replace the losses suffered, 
 are the characteristics of strength. 
 
 It is quite different with the power of endurance. 
 That requires a slow and gradual expenditure of 
 energy, accompanied by little fatigue, or even 
 immunity from it. Neither must we lose sight of 
 the fact, that resistance may also be purely 
 passive, even in muscular work (inertia of the 
 bones and articulations). The work of endurance 
 is incontestabty more economical, more produc- 
 tive, and less exhausting than the expenditure of 
 spontaneous force. Each of these forms of energy 
 has its uses, and its necessities, each represents a 
 distinct function. 
 
 It follows that we may again accept an old 
 physiological idea which pretended that man is 
 above all a " katabolic " being (breaking down), 
 that woman is an " anabolic " being (building up). 
 This anabolism, peculiar to woman, is surely 
 directly connected with the maternal functions 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK in 
 
 allotted to her. In creating lives, woman does not 
 transform energy, she bestows it in its nutritive 
 and chemical form. 
 
 Man personifies strength, the woman is the 
 expression of endurance. This resisting power in 
 woman should dispel many accepted prejudices, 
 which have represented her as " eternally woun- 
 ded," and needing care every hour of her life. 
 Now, except under certain conditions, it is only 
 in pathological cases that this is true. Under the 
 usual physiological conditions, woman is vigorous, 
 full of resistance, and robust ; and during this 
 European war, has not the work done by women 
 in every sphere of life (including work in munition 
 factories), and in every belligerent country, 
 given one more proof of the enormous amount of 
 energy and power of endurance of which that sex 
 is capable, which has been called " weak " by 
 superficial observers, who are now recognised as 
 having been mistaken. 
 
 The physical inferiority of women from the 
 point of view of " strength," properly so called, 
 which is proved by her having a much less well 
 developed muscular system than that of man, 
 is, we believe, congenital, nevertheless that 
 inferiority has been considerably increased by 
 want of exercise, in following the law of least 
 resistance. The original cause (of a biological 
 
U2 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 kind), has created a certain predisposition, a 
 dislike common to most young girls, with regard 
 to physical exercises. This repugnance should 
 be overcome, because, on account of the law of 
 the least resistance having come into play, it has 
 passed physiological limits. It might become 
 morbid if a suitable physical education did not 
 correct this predisposition to a sedentary life, and 
 thus lead to all those evil results to health 
 that might follow in its wake. 
 
 2. A NEW THEORY OF RIGHT-HANDEDNESS. 
 THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORY. 
 
 We cannot, within the compass of this book, 
 deal with all the different theories that have 
 been advanced in explanation of the origin of 
 right and left-handedness. 1 One thing seems 
 certain, and that is, that asymmetry is con- 
 genital, but that it has been considerably increased 
 by the almost exclusive use of the right hand. 
 
 Amongst recent theories may be mentioned 
 that which has been put forward by Herber. 2 
 
 1 See : J. loteyko, Theorie psycho-physiologique de la 
 droiterie. Revue philosophique, June and July, 1916. 
 
 8 J. Herber ; Essai d'une theorie clinique de la droiterie. 
 Memorandum laid before the Academie de Medecine 12 Nov. 
 1912. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 113 
 
 This doctor, convinced that the only cause of 
 right-handedness was a clinical one, asserted, 
 as the result of prolonged and extensive obser- 
 vations, that the sufferings, movements, and efforts 
 of the left side of the body react so powerfully 
 on the heart that it is only natural, in following 
 the law of least resistance, that man should have 
 almost exclusively developed the use of his 
 right hand. 
 
 The agonising attacks in the chest (angina 
 pectoris) during which the pain in the heart so 
 constantly reaches to the left arm, might lead to 
 the belief that there are connections between 
 the two organs undiscovered by dissection. 
 Other observations have established the effect 
 of lesions of the left arm on the heart. Potain 
 and his pupil Lasegue, have described a series of 
 experiments in which lesions of the left arm 
 caused palpitations, or anginal troubles or 
 hypertrophy of the heart. 
 
 Neuralgia in the veins of the left arm, or the 
 amputation of the left arm, may bring cardiac 
 maladies in their train. According to Oilier, 
 Huchard, and other clinical surgeons, experi- 
 ments clearly shew that the lesions of the whole 
 of the left side of the body may react on the 
 heart. Amongst invalids, rather violent move- 
 ments of the left arm cause cardiac attacks. 
 
 H 
 
U4 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 There are probably anatomical connections 
 which, unknown as yet, will explain these clinical 
 symptoms, and shew the action of the heart upon 
 the whole of the left side of the body. 
 
 This hypothesis, as to the origin of right- 
 handedness, published by Dr. Herber in 1912, 
 had been recognised by us as early as 1907, and, 
 so as to test it, we started some experiments 
 which we did not make known until 1916. Our 
 point of departure was the following. Right- 
 handedness is certainly not acquired by indivi- 
 duals, it is a phenomenon common to man, and 
 has existed from all time, though in a less degree. 
 Hence, there must be some important cause to 
 account for its origin. The various theories and 
 hypotheses advanced by different writers are not 
 satisfying, even though they very likely 
 contain some part of the truth. Now, when 
 speaking of right-handedness, or left-handedness, 
 it is first of all necessary to keep " strength " 
 in view, as a distinctive characteristic ; skill 
 is a differentiation of evolution, whilst strength 
 is primitive. 
 
 Now, amongst the effects of muscular labour, 
 that which it exercises on the heart, is certainly 
 the most important to the organism as a whole. 
 The heart-beats are quickened, and that to a very 
 considerable extent. The over-strain of the heart 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 115 
 
 is often brought about by too much physical 
 work. 1 
 
 In physical exercises, the first thing that it is 
 necessary to avoid is over-taxing the heart. And, 
 moreover, death from fatigue, which does occa- 
 sionally occur, in very exceptional cases (the 
 classical example is that of the runner of Mara- 
 thon), is due to the stopping of the heart. That 
 organ first of all precipitates its beats and ends 
 by becoming exhausted. 
 
 Heart fatigue is, therefore, the rock to be 
 avoided when taking muscular exercise in the 
 widest sense, and an excess of exercise is exacted, 
 when a man no longer has only his own weight to 
 bear, but also performs supplementary mechanical 
 work in displacing heavy weights. 
 
 It would seem natural therefore, to admit 
 a priori, that some mechanical automatic 
 regulator must exist in man, some protective 
 mechanism to act in conjunction with the heart, 
 whereby the consequences of too great a strain 
 are avoided. And we have thought that this 
 protective element might very likely be found 
 in right-handedness, by inciting man to by pre- 
 ference use, in the performance of heavy work, 
 either the right hand only, or both hands together, 
 
 1 See our article Fatigue in Ch. Richet's Dictionrtaire de 
 Physiologie, Alcan. 
 
n6 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 but always saving the left hand from working 
 by itself, which, by its situation in the neighbour- 
 hood of the heart, seems likely to be in closer 
 touch with that organ than the right hand. 
 
 We have submitted our theory to experiment. 
 We advance it, not as a clinical theory, but as 
 a psycho-physiological theory of right-handedness, 
 seeing that we attribute to it a biological and 
 psychical significance. 
 
 These experiments were begun in 1907, in 
 collaboration with Mile V. Kipiani, and were 
 continued during several winters, in the psycho- 
 physiological laboratory of the Brussels University, 
 on some of the students there male and female. 
 Herber quotes a certain number of pathological 
 cases which support our opinion and which 
 completes it on the clinical side. But his 
 opinion, in spite of that, remains purely theoretical. 
 That is why we think it m&y be well to make our 
 experiments known, as they furnish an experi- 
 mental contribution to the problem. We will 
 now describe our experiments. We admit then, 
 theoretically, that the same muscular work 
 achieved by the left hand should be more harmful 
 to the heart than that identical work when done 
 by the right hand. As a criterion of cardiac 
 fatigue one may examine the acceleration of 
 cardiac beats, resulting from the work of each hand. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 117 
 
 The experiments were made on 32 people, 
 students of our course of psychology in the 
 psycho-physiological laboratory in the Brussels 
 University (22 male students, 10 female), of about 
 20 years of age. The work required of each arm 
 was the following : the fore-arm being bent on 
 the arm, a weight of 2 kg. and a half was given 
 the student to hold in his hand. And, following 
 the rhythm of a metronome, the student (standing 
 in upright position) , had to raise this weight above 
 his head until the upper arm was extended to the 
 full, every two seconds. The men were required 
 to raise the arm 30 times, the women 20. 
 
 The general trend of the experiment was this. 
 The students were assembled in a neighbouring 
 room and each one came into the laboratory alone. 
 Once there, they were required to keep absolutely 
 quiet for several minutes. One knows, as a 
 matter of fact, that it is enough to take just a few 
 steps for the pulse to become distinctly quicker. 
 After this rest, the rapidity of the radial pulse 
 per minute was taken (by means of simple 
 palpation) and the number of pulsations was 
 written down as the normal state. After which, 
 the student executed the movements described, 
 with one hand. The number of pulsations was 
 then immediately noted. The student then left 
 the laboratory and waited in the adjoining room, 
 
n8 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 leaving the field clear for other experiments. He 
 returned at the end of at least half an hour and 
 the same experiment was then made upon him 
 on the opposite side. In the third place the effect 
 on the heart of performing the work with both 
 hands simultaneously was studied, each hand 
 holding 2 1 kilograms. 
 
 In other experiments the dynamometric strength 
 of all the students was measured so as to separate 
 the right from the left-handed, or, more accurately, 
 to discover which were stronger on one side than 
 on the other. All these experiments were made 
 on different occasions upon each person, and in 
 spite of a co-efficient error, inevitable in experi- 
 ments of this kind, they gave very clear results. 
 The task required was a very tiring one, (judging 
 from those on whom it was tried, and also by 
 noticing their attitudes), the respiration was 
 halting, and the complexion flushed. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 119 
 
 GENERAL TABLE. 
 
 Acceleration of the radial pulse under the influence 
 of Muscular Exertion. 
 
 (32 subjects). 
 
 GROUPS 
 
 Work with the 
 right arm 
 quickens pulse 
 per minute. 
 
 Work with 
 left arm 
 quickens pulse 
 per minute. 
 
 Simultaneous 
 work with 
 both arms 
 quickens pulse 
 per minute. 
 
 
 Pulsations 
 
 Pulsations 
 
 Pulsations 
 
 Left-handed men 
 
 5'i 
 
 6-5 
 
 10-7 
 
 Right-handed men 
 
 6-4 
 
 7-1 
 
 7-2 
 
 Left-handed women 
 
 4-0 
 
 9-2 
 
 9-0 
 
 Right-handed women 
 
 4-0 
 
 7-2 
 
 9-0 
 
 Averages 
 
 4-87 
 
 7'5 
 
 8-97 
 
 We will first consider the general conclusions 
 to be drawn from this table and we will next 
 examine the differences, by groups. 
 
 The general averages (taken by including the 
 men and women together the right and the left- 
 handed) shew that exhausting work when accom- 
 plished by the left hand, produces a more intense 
 (more injurious) effect on the heart, than the same 
 work when performed by the right hand ; the 
 
120 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 difference is equal to about one third. In causing 
 both hands to work together and consequently by 
 causing a double effort in the same space of time, 
 the cardiac acceleration is not the total of the two 
 accelerations together but it is less by one quarter. 
 
 In passing on to the groups we obtain more 
 precise results. 
 
 Amongst right-handed men, the effect on the 
 heart is almost identical in the case of work with 
 either hand, as well as when both hands work 
 together. The advantage of bi-manual work 
 is clearly shewn. 
 
 Amongst right-handed women, the results 
 differ, in that the work done by the left hand 
 exhausts the heart almost twice as much as the 
 work done by the right hand. Bi-manual work 
 is an advantage, but less than is the case with 
 a right-handed man. The advantage amounts 
 to one fifth. 
 
 Amongst left-handed men, work done by the 
 left hand is more tiring to the heart than work 
 done by the right hand. The difference equals 
 one fifth. The simultaneous work of both 
 hands tires the heart rather less than the total 
 of work performed by each hand separately. 
 The difference equals one tenth. 
 
 Amongst left-handed women, the work done by 
 the left hand tires the heart almost two and 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 121 
 
 one half times as much as the same work done 
 by the right hand. The simultaneous work 
 of both hands tires the heart to the same extent 
 as that done by the left hand. 
 
 We can now interpret these results and draw 
 some conclusions from them. 
 
 The fatigue of the heart, which appears to be 
 much greater among women, who work with their 
 left hands, than amongst men, may be attributed 
 to two causes. The test was certainly more 
 exhausting for them than for the men. They, 
 in fact, frequently complained of it. In the 
 second place, we attribute to the woman greater 
 cardiac excitability than to men. When ques- 
 tioned on this point, several of our female students 
 stated that they not infrequently experienced 
 palpitations. 
 
 Amongst the left-handed, men as well as women, 
 the work done with the left hand is more injurious 
 to the heart than that done by the right hand, 
 but the difference is less marked in the case of the 
 man (left-handed), it is very marked in the case 
 of the woman (left-handed). 
 
 One can therefore, say, that two essential conditions 
 make work with the left hand particularly injurious 
 to the heart : on the one hand, left-handedness 
 (predominance of strength on the left side], and, 
 on the other, the feminine sex. 
 
122 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 As regards the simultaneous work of both hands, 
 this presents considerable advantages, for right- 
 handed and for left-handed people as well, both for 
 men as for women. 
 
 We see the idea which served as our point of 
 departure clearly confirmed we know that work 
 performed with the left hand must produce a 
 more injurious effect on the heart than the same 
 work performed with the right hand. 
 
 And it is with a certain degree of probability 
 that we recognise that the original cause of 
 right-handedness is due to defensive mechanism, 
 intended to protect the heart against the effects of 
 the great strain caused by the excessive use of 
 the left hand. The results of these experiments 
 shew also a very remarkable gradation which 
 cannot be due to chance. 
 
 It is clear that the degree of harmfulness due to 
 working with the left hand is not the same under 
 all circumstances. Various pedagogic and in- 
 dustrial conclusions flow from this. Observe 
 that the work exacted was of a kind to require, 
 from the subjects of it, as great an aptitude from 
 the point of view of strength as from the point 
 of view of powers of endurance. In this the 
 woman is clearly shewn to be the inferior. From 
 this it follows that the danger to be avoided for 
 them in the exercises used in physical education, 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 123 
 
 as well as in industrial work, is the performance 
 of work which puts too great a strain on the heart. 
 Careful supervision should be exercised in this 
 respect, even in normal cases. 
 
 In cases of cardiac disease, the woman should 
 be dismissed from certain kinds of hard work. 
 But do not let us forget that work with the right 
 hand or bi-manual work may often be allowed. 
 
 As regards the greater fatigue shewn by the 
 left-handed, working with the left hand, to the 
 right-handed, working under the like conditions, 
 the explanation is still surrounded with great 
 obscurity. But it seems very probable that 
 the left-handed person, who is strongest on the 
 left side, is naturally inclined to develop a larger 
 total of work on that side. The result of this is, 
 a warning to left-handed people (those who in 
 preference if not exclusively use their left hand), 
 to avoid certain heavy employments, such as 
 unloading of goods, removing of furniture, etc., 
 at least unless they have, through suitable 
 training, become ambidextrous. 
 
 The clear result of these experiments is, that 
 it is more dangerous for a person to be very 
 markedly left-handed than right-handed. Left- 
 handedness appears, to the present writer, to 
 be a defective adaptation, it is necessary to 
 correct it. The left hand, therefore, in the case 
 
124 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 of a left-handed person, should not be developed 
 from the point of view of strength, because then 
 it will be used to excess, and will produce great 
 fatigue of the heart. In developing their right 
 hand, and placing it, as far as possible, on an 
 equality with the left, ambidextrous conditions of 
 work will be created, and those are the most 
 advantageous of all. In no cases, however, will it 
 be possible to change the left-handed into right- 
 handed people, seeing that, with them, the right 
 hand hemisphere is more developed, and con- 
 genitaly more perfect than the left hand hemis- 
 phere. The left-handed persons will thus remain 
 left-handed for the more complicated kinds of 
 work, works of skill, such as do not require great 
 muscular effort. 
 
 In conclusion then, it is the over-work of the 
 left hand that should be avoided, and that more 
 in the case of the left than the right handed, 
 more in the case of women than of men, more in 
 the case of people with excitable hearts, and 
 above all, in the case of those suffering from 
 heart disease. 1 Amongst right-handed men, the 
 harmlessness of working with the left hand only 
 is only apparent ; as a matter of fact we have 
 
 1 If the left-handed people were completely inverted, that is 
 to say, if their hearts were on the right side of their bodies, 
 it wo'uld be working with their right hands that would be 
 harmful to thjm. But the inversion of the viscera is ex- 
 tremely rare. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 125 
 
 only had to do with remarkably robust individuals; 
 injurious effects might have made themselves 
 felt after more arduous work. 
 
 The teacher, even whilst respecting natural 
 tendencies, should institute exercises amongst 
 his right-handed pupils too, especially amongst 
 those markedly right-handed, for the correction 
 of what is excessive, and to allow of the child's 
 making use of both hands. 
 
 Why not praise bi-manual education (a term 
 which we prefer to ambidexterity), when we see 
 its excellent results in those experiments where 
 the work was accomplished by both hands 
 simultaneously ? The result does not seem 
 insignificant when we compare the figures given 
 by Orchanski, who says that, at the present time, 
 25% of the trades require the simultaneous 
 development of both hands. This necessity for 
 the use of both hands, we may add, is very clearly 
 apparent in the occupation of a soldier ; we may 
 be allowed to say that an ambidextrous education, 
 if begun in childhood, should certainly have most 
 unexpected results in that relation. 
 
 Our theories of right-handedness go beyond the 
 limits of pure physiology ; we have, moreover, 
 called them psycho -physiological. It is, as 
 a matter of fact, very probable, that the 
 right hand has developed greater strength on 
 
126 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 account of the reasons given. It is a superiority 
 acquired during man's phylogenetic develop- 
 ment. This supremacy carries others in its train. 
 The work of the right hand has reacted on the 
 left hemisphere, and has produced its supremacy, 
 and that not only from the psycho-motor stand- 
 point, but also from the point of view of sensi- 
 tiveness, skill, and intelligence, because of the 
 connections existing between the different centres. 
 The difference between the two hemispheres, 
 at first physiological, has, in the course of time, 
 become psychological. 
 
 In fact, it has been proved that asymmetry not 
 only bears on the centres of perception, it also 
 affects the centres of speech, of recognition (the 
 loss of which produces amnesia, or the impossi- 
 bility of recognising objects or signs), and the 
 powers of co-ordination (the loss of which con- 
 stitutes ataxia or the impossibility of executing 
 the proper movements for arriving at a given 
 place. We will not penetrate into the region 
 of the centres of association. Now, these centres, 
 among right-handed people, are localized on 
 the left side. 
 
 We believe that it is due to the operation of 
 the law of least resistance, that the left hand has 
 been condemned to inaction, and the right hand 
 has acquired an exaggerated development. This 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 127 
 
 one-sided localization of a great many of the 
 centres of perception, and of the centres of asso- 
 ciation, seems to us to be acquired and is cer- 
 tainly not free from danger to the healthy 
 integrity of cerebral action. It has passed its 
 functional destiny by a long way. 
 
 3. AMBIDEXTROUS EDUCATION. 
 
 The practical conclusion come to in the prece- 
 ding chapter is as follows : Ambidextrous educa- 
 tion has for its aim, the correction of the excessive 
 supremacy of one hand over the other, a supremacy 
 which far surpasses original asymmetry, because 
 of the almost exclusive use of that side of the 
 body that is best endowed, and by virtue of the 
 law of least resistance. 
 
 This necessity for correction being admitted, 
 the degree should be decided on. Now, the 
 law of least resistance has been so effective, 
 that the training for the work of all the industries 
 of civilisation is based on the activities of one 
 hand only, and one cerebral hemisphere only. 
 The increased growth of asymmetry is proved by 
 means of the dynamometer (p. 97). 
 
 We have elsewhere refuted Felix Regnault's l 
 
 1 F. Regnault, Pourquci on est drottier ? Revue scientifique 
 13 June, 1914. 
 
128 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 objections, for he considers asymmetry to be a 
 sign of superiority because it is almost unknown 
 amongst animals, very slightly developed amongst 
 savages and very marked in civilized man, less 
 marked amongst women than amongst men, 
 amongst children than amongst adults. This 
 is to believe that our civilization has brought 
 us nothing but progress. Alas ! this is the 
 reverse of the truth ! Nothing illustrates this 
 better than the tables relating to myopia, which 
 show that this affection, almost non-existent 
 amongst the peasantry and the uncultured, 
 increases strangely in proportion to the degree of 
 education, up to the point of being most accen- 
 tuated amongst university men. Yet no one 
 would consider myopia as a sign of superiority. 
 It is an annoying consequence but avoidable 
 of a certain state of things. It is the same with 
 asymmetry. That a pathological foundation 
 would sometimes seem necessary for the bursting 
 forth of genius we will not deny, and a strong 
 portion of asymmetry may perhaps, in that re- 
 spect, be an advantage. But we have never seen 
 pedagogy strive for deformity in order to attain to 
 an object as obscure as it is uncertain. One cannot 
 consent to the extinction of the most feeble organ. 
 We commend ambidextrous exercises quite as 
 much because they are healthy for the practical 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 129 
 
 centres as because of their practical utility. We 
 mean, not only gymnastic exercises, but also 
 games, manual work, drawing and writing. 
 
 In England, it was John Jackson, founder of 
 the London Society for Ambidextrous Education, 
 who became the promoter of bi-manual educa- 
 tion. The results were excellent. In Germany, 
 we have the name of Pabst (Leipzig) ; in Belgium, 
 Sleeys and Tensi, Mme Michiels, ourselves, and 
 our pupil, Mile V. Kipiani. In the United States 
 bi-manual education is current in the schools. 
 
 The wisdom of carrying this bi-manual educa- 
 tion as far as the training of the left hand to 
 write, has been proved by Fraenkel's clinical 
 observations. This doctor has reported cases of 
 invalids whose right hand being paralysed, also 
 suffered from aphasia. Upon their learning 
 to write with their left hand, they began to 
 develop the right centre of language and thus 
 regained the power of speech. This shews the 
 close connection between speech and writing, and 
 the enormous part played by writing in the 
 development of cerebral functions. The energy 
 gained by bi-manual education is valued by 
 Fraenkel at 50%. The students, the labourers, 
 artisans, soldiers, are all visibly benefited. 
 Writer's cramp will no longer exist, since the hand 
 will no longer suffer from over-work. 
 
 I 
 
130 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 These facts shew the wisdom of training the 
 left hand to write and to draw. The use of 
 speech is one of the most intellectual powers of 
 man, and drawing is also connected with one of 
 our highest functions (art), 
 
 The hand, which is the servant of the brain 
 and one of the chief instruments for the execution 
 of the wishes of that organ, should be developed 
 bi-laterally. It will thus become possible to 
 develop those treasures of the mind which have 
 lain hidden in the dormant cerebral hemisphere 
 condemned to certain death for the want of 
 cultivation. According to Orchanski, the har- 
 monious development of both sides of the body 
 may exercise a very considerable influence upon 
 general development, and amongst backward 
 children who shew difficulties of speech, it may 
 help the acquirement of language. Certain 
 statements seem to contradict this opinion. 
 Thus, Ballard has pointed out the frequency 
 of stammering amongst left-handed abnormal 
 children, who are taught to write with their 
 right hand. But we must not forget that in 
 the left hemisphere, in the case of left-handed 
 people, neither Broca nor Wernicke's centre is 
 developed, both being developed in the right-hand 
 hemisphere. It is clear that, if writing can be 
 accomplished by one hand, it will be done by the 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 131 
 
 better hand, which, in the case of a left-handed 
 person, would be the left hand. By quite 
 reprehensible inconsequence, people try to 
 transform the left into a right-handed person, 
 and only train one side (the right hand one), 
 whose action on the centres they wish to develop 
 is nil at the commencement of the effort. 
 
 Under these conditions, according to Stier's 
 opinion, trouble may arise, owing to a struggle 
 for supremacy between the two hemispheres. 
 
 4. ALIMENTATION AND WORK. 
 
 In the course of studying the different con- 
 ditions of labour, 1 we have, in collaboration 
 with Mile V. Kipiani, 2 examined 43 Brussels 
 vegetarians, all healthy, who had not adopted 
 this unusual regimen for therapeutic reasons, 
 but for moral or hygienic reasons. All were total 
 abstainers, and only used coffee, tea and choco- 
 late very sparingly. These people belonged to 
 the intellectual class of workers. We examined 
 their dynamometric strength, their powers of 
 resistance to fatigue were tested by the ergograph, 
 their vital capacity by means of the spirometer, 
 
 1 J. loteyko, Les lots de I'ergographie, Bui, de 1'Acad. Roy. 
 de Belgique, classe des Sciences, 1904, extract of 174 p. 
 
 2 J. loteyko and V. Kipiani, Enquete scientifique sur h-s 
 vegetariens de Bruxelles. Pamphlet ot 77 p. Brussels, 1907. 
 
132 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 and the rapidity of their nervous reaction by 
 means of d'Arsonval's chronometer. The com- 
 parison of the mechanical work accomplished 
 by the vegetarians, and that accomplished by 
 the omnivorous, is very significant. We see 
 how enormously the vegetarians are benefited. 
 The omnivorous people, however, with whom 
 they were compared, were rather powerful 
 University students, whilst the vegetarians were 
 in no case of herculean appearance. In the 
 average, one might estimate the increase of 
 mechanical work, due to a vegetarian diet, at 
 50%, if we omit one single ergogram, which was 
 carried to the limit of fatigue. 
 
 The form of the curves gave results no less 
 interesting. This increase in the mechanical 
 labour of the vegetarians was not made at the 
 expense of the heights of isolated contractions; 
 on the contrary, the contractions in their cases 
 were a little shorter than those of the omnivorous 
 It is their number which is considerably increased. 
 Their number is often doubled, nay, even tripled, 
 amongst the vegetarians, when compared to 
 the omnivorous. Vegetarians can work for two 
 or three times as long as the omnivorous can, without 
 becoming exhausted. This effort is distributed 
 with greater regularity, amongst vegetarians ; 
 their curve keeps at one level for a long time 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 133 
 
 and is very slow in its descent. The curve of the 
 non- vegetarians is higher at the beginning, but 
 the descent is rapid. It gives the impression of 
 there being, amongst the latter, a dissipation 
 of their strength at the beginning of their work, 
 and that their effort cannot be long sustained. 
 
 From the point of view of productivity, it is 
 much more profitable to extend labour over a 
 long period, even though it be a little less energetic, 
 than to expend a greater amount of energy in a 
 short period only. 
 
 A third point shews the incontestable superiority 
 of vegetarians. The recovery from fatigue is 
 much more rapid amongst them than amongst 
 the omnivorous : two minutes rest between the 
 curves, suffice for the recovery of the whole of their 
 powers amongst vegetarians. Under the conditions 
 of the ordinary regimen, ten minutes, at least, 
 are required. 
 
 As regards the calculation of strength by the 
 dynamometer, the averages furnished by the 
 vegetarians are almost identically the same as 
 those supplied by the omnivorous. No loss of 
 strength can be proved here. For the purpose of 
 comparison we will use the experiments already 
 quoted for both the dynamometer and the ergo- 
 graph. 1 The vital capacity was measured by 
 
 1 See the experiments by Schoutenden and by myself. 
 
134 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 means of Verdin's spirometer. The vegetarians 
 shewed a vital capacity superior to that of the 
 non- vegetarians (volume of air expired after forced 
 inspiration). 
 
 The time taken for nervous reaction (in acoustic 
 excitation), is no longer among vegetarians than 
 among non- vegetarians. This is of great im- 
 portance from the standpoint of industrial acci- 
 dents (see p. 39). 
 
 We are, therefore, justified in saying that a 
 vegetarian working man would not be more 
 subject to industrial accidents than an omnivorous 
 workman. But, as vegetarians tire themselves 
 less than the non-vegetarians, they are really 
 less liable to those accidents incidental to their 
 work. 
 
 Such are the principal conclusions which 
 result from this impartial enquiry, of which the 
 sole purpose was, to gather scientific information 
 bearing on powers of work under various experi- 
 mental conditions. They are entirely in favour 
 of a vegetarian diet. The progress of alimentary 
 chemistry, and of physiology, has super-abundantly 
 shewn that an entirely vegetable diet is compatible 
 with the preservation of health and strength. 
 On the other hand, they have disclosed the dangers 
 of a carnivorous diet, the producer of auto- 
 toxines. Auto-toxines are the sources of various 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 135 
 
 maladies (belonging to the cycle of arthritism) 
 and they exercise a paralysing action on the 
 muscles. On the other hand, we know that in 
 order to keep the human body in good condition, 
 some albuminoids are required and in order to pro- 
 duce energy, a good supply of carbohydrates is 
 necessary. These latter are found more abun- 
 dantly in the vegetable than in the animal 
 kingdom. Bouchard has rightly said : that a 
 meat diet is not conducive to the performance of 
 muscular work. Neither is there anything to 
 shew the necessity or the utility of a meat diet, 
 for brain work. Only, the transition from a 
 meat to a vegetable diet is painful in some cases, 
 and strong and tenacious prejudices are opposed 
 to the general adoption of a vegetarian diet. 
 
 We may conclude that, in tests of their powers of 
 resistance to fatigue, vegetarians are proved to be 
 superior to non-vegetarians, whilst in tests of 
 strength and in tests of speed they are equal to 
 them. 
 
 These proofs have an economic and a social 
 bearing. Hygienists and sociologists should not 
 turn the working man away from a vegetarian 
 diet, which is the most economical, and at the 
 same time the most productive from the 
 stand-point of work, and may also be looked 
 upon as one of the best means of combating 
 
136 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 alcoholism. 1 Unhappily, the idea still gener- 
 ally obtaining to-day, is, that meat alone is 
 strengthening. 
 
 We had the honour of seeing our book on 
 the study of vegetarians, approved by the 
 Academy of Medicine. Now, to-day, when the 
 necessities of war have made it absolutely necessary 
 to lessen the consumption of meat, we have heard 
 Dr. Maurel, at the same learned assembly, make 
 a speech (in January, 1917), shewing that France 
 requires from 900 millions to a billion kilograms 
 of proteids per annum, to feed her, that is a daily 
 consumption of from 75-90 grammes of albumen 
 per adult inhabitant. Now, this amount, said 
 Dr. Maurel, is largely provided for her by the 
 vegetables she grows notably by cereals, dry 
 vegetables, potatoes, etc. Furthermore, milk 
 adds about 240 million kilograms of nitrogen 
 to this. As to the meat consumed, even in the 
 towns which use the most, they scarcely supply 
 from 25-30 grammes of nitrogen per adult 
 that is a third of the necessary quantity. 
 Moreover, the proteids of either fresh or frozen 
 meat are three or four times as expensive as 
 those provided by vegetables, and, after a certain 
 
 1 Vegetarians are quite naturally abstainers, because they 
 are not thirsty. Vegetable foods contain the necessary amount 
 of water, and neither do they awaken thirst artificially., which 
 is the case with meat. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 137 
 
 limit is passed, constitute less healthy food than 
 the latter. For these various reasons, there is no 
 cause for alarm, concluded Dr. Maurel, if our 
 supply of meat leaves something to be desired, 
 since our vegetables can supply us more cheaply, 
 and in a more healthy form, with the full quantity 
 of proteids of which we are in need. 
 
 And when France decided, at the end of the 
 third year of the war, to prohibit the use of meat 
 for two days a week, she, at the same time minis- 
 tered to an economic necessity and a hygienic 
 need. 1 
 
 5. USE OF THE LEFT HAND BY THE WOUNDED 
 AND MUTILATED. 
 
 (Some Scientific Rules for Re-education). 
 
 The problem of re-educating those wounded 
 in the war, 2 revives certain anthropological 
 and physiological neuro-muscular questions, 
 which are receiving a new kind of application in 
 connection with a new and interesting class of 
 people, and the necessity suddenly arises for 
 
 1 See : J. loteyko and V. Kipiani, Le Vegetarisme et son 
 influence SHY la sarM publique, le Commerce, V Industrie et 
 I'Economie de la nature. Report of the International Food 
 Congress, Ghent, 1908. Pamphlet of 68 p. 
 
 2 f- loteyko L' usage de la main gauche chez les mutilis. 
 Quelqucs regies scientif.ques de reeducation. Revue Scientifique, 
 No. 16, 2nd sem. 1916. 
 
138 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 establishing this re-education on solid scientific 
 foundations, with the object of restoring to our 
 wounded, if not the normal use of their injured 
 limbs, at least a shadow of that use, and above 
 all of permitting the substitution of one limb for 
 another, and the apprenticeship to a new trade. 
 This idea of re-education is not entirely new ; for 
 a long time now, those crippled by accidents 
 in the course of their work, have been cared for 
 and re-educated in Schools ad hoc, with a 
 view to restoring them to society, and preserving 
 them from beggary, the thousands who, victims 
 of our economic system and its dangers, each 
 year pay their contribution to an industrialisa- 
 tion pushed to an extreme. 
 
 But that which is very exceptional, even 
 in the most, industrial countries, has become 
 very common during the war ; those who escape 
 death return crippled, lame, deaf, paralysed. 
 And one sympathises with all the attempts made 
 to build up these maimed, imperfect, amputated 
 bodies, so as to make them capable of again 
 taking their place amongst the active in this 
 world, amongst the workers able to gain their 
 daily bread. 
 
 Those mutilated in the war must be numbered 
 by the thousand, if we are to take all the belli- 
 gerents into account. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 139 
 
 How many there are who have lost an arm ! 
 The loss of one of the upper limbs is very 
 unequal in its effects on the sufferer, according 
 to whether it is the right or the left arm that is 
 lost. As most people are right-handed, the loss 
 of the right arm is much the more serious, and the 
 re-education of those crippled in battle is com- 
 plicated by necessitating the education of the left 
 arm, which has remained, so to speak, inactive 
 up to now. And it is with this education of the 
 left arm that we are going to deal in this section, 
 in the hope that these pages may be of some use 
 to those who have the task the heavy and grave 
 responsibility of re-making, of restoring those 
 mutilated in the war, of just those who, having 
 to live by manual work, find themselves suddenly 
 deprived of their productive organ, their one 
 and only possession, of one arm, if not of both ! 
 Dr. Fraenkel, already quoted above, has reported 
 cases of wounded, paralysed in the right hand, 
 who, at the same time suffer from aphasia. 
 In teaching them to write with their left hand, 
 they also develop the right centre of language. 
 The paralytic thus recovers the power of speech. 
 One single experience of this kind is of greater 
 interest than the whole of a vain argument. 
 It demonstrates the direct connection between 
 speech and writing, and the enormous importance 
 
140 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 of writing in cerebral functions. These facts 
 clearly explain the theory of aphasia, formulated 
 by Broca and which led to the discovery of 
 the centres of articulate language. Now, the 
 centre of speech is located in a convolution 
 situated in the posterior part of the lower frontal 
 convolution in the neighbourhood of the centre of 
 writing. The exercise of the left hand cannot, 
 therefore, be confined to gymnastic movements 
 only, but, just as speech is one of the msot 
 intellectual functions of man, so also is writing 
 and drawing, because the latter, although manual 
 acts, nevertheless touch one of our highest 
 functions (ethics and art). 
 
 From these premises we draw the following 
 practical conclusions ; it is indispensable, in the 
 treatment of those suffering from aphasia, due to 
 the loss of an arm in the war to make them learn to 
 write and to draw with the left hand, so as to develop 
 a new centre of speech which will be situated in the 
 right cerebral hemisphere. 
 
 We have many times boasted of other advan- 
 tages attaching to ambidexterity, the cure of 
 writer's cramp which is common amongst those 
 employed in clerical work, the better utilization 
 of strength in the various manual employments, 
 and, finally, the immense advantage it gives those 
 who, in cases of paralysis or amputation, are in a 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 141 
 
 position to use the arm that remains intact. 
 Certain it is, that late training can never attain 
 an equal proficiency to that acquired at an early 
 age. If ambidexterity had been a common 
 practice, those now mutilated in the war would 
 be much more capable of acquiring the required 
 skill with the left arm, having been originally 
 trained by games, gymnastics, drawing, writing, 
 manual work, and even by certain arts and handi- 
 crafts. 
 
 The training of the left hand amongst those 
 maimed in the war, has now become an inevitable 
 necessity and we can only rejoice to see that 
 previous experiments in ambidexterity are so 
 much in favour of such training. It goes without 
 saying, that the left-handed man who is maimed, 
 must, in like manner develop the right arm, but 
 it remains to be shewn under what conditions 
 such training should be carried out. This is 
 what we will now enquire into. 
 
 To begin with, one remark must be made. 
 We cannot here speak of " Ambidextrous," or 
 " bi-manual " education, as we generally do. 
 Those on whom the experiments are to be made, 
 have had one arm amputated, and it is a ques- 
 tion of how to give the remaining arm the strength 
 and skill necessary to the acquirement of some 
 handicraft. 
 
142 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 This training of the left hand should be directed 
 by several principles. It is highly advantageous to 
 enable the man to keep to his original occupation, 
 that is to say to teach the left hand to execute 
 the same movements as those which had been 
 executed by the right hand. This principle has 
 been very clearly established in the attempts 
 to re-educate the maimed, as it has been recognised 
 in practice, that the experience gained by one 
 hand is an advantage to the other. 
 
 How is this remarkable fact to be explained ? 
 It has been experimentally demonstrated, 
 notably in some of our researches, 1 that the work 
 performed by one arm reacts on the other, either 
 by increasing its excitability, or by diminishing it, 
 as the case may be. 
 
 This evidence proves that the state in which 
 the psycho-motor centres of one side exist, 
 is more or less reproduced on the opposide side. 
 Other observations demonstrate that the same is 
 the case with acquired movements. If you ask 
 a person to write with the left hand, you will 
 notice that after several futile attempts, he will 
 succeed, without much trouble, in tracing pre- 
 sentable letters. And, the curious thing is, 
 that the writing of the left hand will bear the 
 
 1 /. loteyko, L'effort nerveux et la fatigue. Archives de 
 Biologic XVI, 1899. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 143 
 
 impress of all the peculiarities of the writing by 
 the right hand, it will reflect the personal 
 characteristic element which enables us to 
 recognise each person by his hand- writing. 1 
 These statements which were handed to us to 
 verify, after the experiments made by Mile V. 
 Kipiani, 2 a pupil in our laboratory, shew several 
 points which are of real value, in the first place, 
 that the movements acquired by the left hemis- 
 phere (which directs the movements of the right 
 hand), are transmitted to the right hemisphere, 
 and, secondly, that this transmission is not 
 purely and simply an increase of excitability, but 
 that it comprises all the complicated movements 
 necessitated by the act of writing, in a word, 
 that the characteristics of handwriting certainly 
 have their origin in some central cerebral cause. 
 According to Dr. Meige, the graphic education 
 of the right hand is reflected as in a mirror on 
 the upper left limb, and, in a general way, the 
 training of the motor centres of one limb has its 
 corresponding effect on the symmetrical motcr 
 centres of the opposite limb. The effect of this 
 training, though often latent, is none the less real 
 and shews itself, when called upon, in the facility 
 with which the untrained limb will reproduce the 
 movements of the trained limb. 
 
 1 This is most of all apparent if the writing is viewed in mirror. 
 
 2 See : V. Kipiani, Ambidextrie, 103 p. F. Alcan, 1912. * 
 
144 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 These rules have already been applied in the 
 treatment of convulsions and cramp (Meige) ; 
 they are going to help us to establish the basis 
 for the re-education of the maimed. 
 
 Consequent upon the opposing symmetry of 
 the two halves of the brain " mirror writing " 
 is looked upon as the normal physiological writing 
 of the left hand. " Reflected Movements " 
 is the name given to those executed by the left 
 hand in contradistinction to those executed by 
 the right hand. These movements are those 
 which come the most natural to it, the easiest 
 of execution. From the moment when the right 
 hand has adopted a system of working which 
 seems to it the easiest, the left hand ought to make 
 the same gestures whilst maintaining an opposite 
 direction. It seems certain that a great number 
 of failures in the training of the left hand, have 
 arisen from exacting from it movements super- 
 imposed upon those of the right hand, and 
 which are generally contrary to its aptitudes. 
 It certainly cannot be denied that even identical 
 movements exacted from the left-hand do produce 
 satisfactory results in its training, but the true 
 method is to educate the left hand by " reflection." 
 
 From these considerations we evolve the 
 following rule : Apprenticeship, with the left hand, 
 to a craft, should be accomplished 'by following 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 145 
 
 the law of the opposite direction ; that is to say, 
 that the left hand must not simply copy the 
 right hand, but that it must execute all the 
 movements of the right hand, but reversed. 
 This should be the general rule, in the case of 
 training to a new trade, as well as in the education 
 of the. left hand for the same craft which was 
 formerly followed with the right hand. 
 
 And in returning to the examples quoted above, 
 regarding those suffering from aphasia, we say, 
 that it would benefit them to exercise them 
 in writing with the left hand " by reflection " 
 (as well as in drawing " by reflection "), with the 
 object of developing as promptly as possible, the 
 centre of writing on the opposite side, and by its 
 instrumentality acting on the centres of speech 
 on the right side (motor and sensorial centres). 
 We will consider one last question. Can the 
 left hand be trained to any and all handicrafts 
 without reserve equally well ? The limitations 
 we are going to make are based upon the results 
 of our own experiments. 
 
 The general results are as follows : heavy 
 work with the left hand produces a more considerable 
 effect on the heart than does the same work when 
 accomplished with the right hand ; the difference 
 is about equal to one third (4-87 accelerations 
 per minute for work by the right hand, and 7-5 
 
 K 
 
146 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 accelerations per minute for that by the left). 
 By working both hands together and thereby 
 furnishing a double amount of work, the cardiac 
 acceleration is not the total of that observed 
 when each hand works separately (4-87 and 7-5 
 = 12-37), but it i s I GSS by a quarter (8-97 accelera- 
 tions). It is, therefore, better for the heart that 
 the work should be performed by both hands 
 simultaneously than by each hand separately. 
 This result pleads strongly for ambidextrous 
 work, and it shews the harmful effects upon the 
 heart of heavy work performed by one hand 
 alone, and that the left. 
 
 With regard to the conclusions to be drawn 
 from these experiments from the standpoint of 
 the re-education of those crippled in the war, 
 we would say that the use of the left hand alone 
 (in the case of the loss of the right arm), cannot 
 be applied to all industries in view of the harmful 
 effects of heavy work by the left hand, on the 
 heart. It is here that a group of our subjects of 
 experiment, did now shew any difference between 
 work done by the right, and work done by the 
 left hand, but since the others shewed an enormous 
 difference to the disadvantage of the left, the 
 first group, would, without doubt, have betrayed 
 a like difference if tested by heavier work ; 
 and although the experiment was not made, 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 147 
 
 it is only reasonable to conclude that this 
 is so. 
 
 It is impossible for us to specify the industries 
 that are unsuitable for the left arm working 
 alone, it is for the medical specialists and for the 
 teachers to decide each case on its merits, and they 
 should be careful to examine the patient's heart 
 from the standpoint of disease and of neuroses, 
 which is the only possible criterion. In certain 
 cases it would be better to change the patient's 
 employment than to cause him to do that which 
 is too exacting for his left hand. On the other 
 hand, all crafts do not demand a large amount 
 of expenditure of strength, and may be performed 
 by the maimed who have only preserved the use 
 of their left hands. 
 
 6. LEFT-HANDED WRITING BY THE MAIMED. 
 
 For the right-handed wounded to learn to write 
 with their left hand is a problem the importance 
 of which is notorious at the present time. It 
 is not only the necessity of giving the left hand 
 some power of writing adequate to the needs of 
 current life, a very few attempts would suffice 
 for that. The question is a more complex one 
 than that. It is requisite to give to the left hand 
 
148 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 exactly the same efficiency as the right hand 
 possessed, making it possible for the wounded 
 man to undertake various employments, especially 
 that of a teacher, or clerk in an office, obliged to 
 write with the requisite rapidity in ledgers, etc. 
 A thorough training is therefore necessary, and 
 lessons must be given with the co-operation of a 
 competent teacher and a very practical method 
 of teaching. By practical method we understand 
 one that will satisfy the desiderata enumerated, 
 and which, far from being inspired with theo- 
 retical questions concerning the reform of hand- 
 writing, is only bent upon attaining the desired 
 end, it is, therefore, necessary to teach the left 
 hand to write exactly in the same way as the 
 right hand, so that suppleness may be absolutely 
 assured. Preliminary exercise in " reflected " 
 writing may, nevertheless, be of undeniable value. 
 Necessities created by the war, have caused 
 processes of writing intended for the use of the 
 left hand, to be evolved. We particularly 
 recommend the two processes identical in 
 their main lines commended by two professional 
 men who understand the problem, and who take a 
 personal interest in it ; both having been deprived 
 of the use of their right hands, long before the 
 war began, they have themselves been obliged 
 to face all the difficulties inherent in the task of 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 149 
 
 writing with the left hand in order to prosecute 
 their callings (of an office clerk in the first case, 
 a schoolmaster in the second). 
 
 According to M. Meurville, 1 the failures in the 
 training are due to defective attitudes : the 
 copy-book was placed upright, very much to the 
 left of the body, the arm remaining glued to the 
 chest, the wrist turned backwards. The writing 
 was upright, uneven, and produced with difficulty 
 because of the contraction of the muscles of the 
 arm, the wrist, and the fingers. The fatigue which 
 resulted was discouraging. This writer considers 
 that it is as easy to write with the left hand as 
 with the right, and therefore, to accomplish 
 all the clerical work usually performed by the 
 right hand. The same advice should be given 
 for writing with the left hand, as for writing 
 with the right hand, that is, free movement. 
 Only the position of the copy-book must be quite 
 different. In order to secure from the left hand 
 a perfect English hand writing, differing in no 
 particular from that of the right hand, the 
 following directions should be followed : 
 
 The copy-book should be placed in front of 
 the pupil, not quite in the centre of the chest, 
 slightly to the left, and sloping towards the right. 
 
 1 Meurville, How to write with the left hand, Nos. 4, 5, and 6, 
 1916. Journal des Mutiles. 
 
150 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 The chest should be upright and leant lightly 
 on the right arm 1 of which the fore-arm is 
 resting on the table, the hand resting on the copy- 
 book. The right side of the body should be 
 about 5-6 centimetres from the table. The left 
 side, about 10-12 centimetres off. The left arm 
 should be separated from the chest by about 
 20-25 centimetres. The fore-arm should have the 
 same slant as the copy-book, and the elbow 
 will act as a pivot which will move towards the 
 chest, as and when the pupil writes. This 
 movement will allow of the left hand writing on a 
 surface of from 6-7 centimetres. The pen chosen 
 should be fairly soft and should not be held 
 stiffly. 
 
 The most practical and most rapid type of 
 handwriting is flowing English. A great effort 
 should be made to form each word without raising 
 the pen with the hand, the movement of the 
 fingers only should come into play in the formation 
 of the letters, the work of the hand and of the 
 fore-arm being to move the fingers from one end 
 to the other, of each line, beginning on the left. 
 The movement of the wrist will only be needed 
 
 1 This statement, of course, applies only in the case of 
 training persons possessed of both arms to write with the left 
 hand, as well as with the right. In the case of one-armed 
 men, the right stump (if any), might be used to steady the 
 book, if the stump is long enough, or fitted with an artificial 
 limb. Ed. 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 151 
 
 when the large loops of the capital letters have 
 to be formed. 
 
 To get the slope of English writing, it will be 
 advisable to exercise the fingers in sloping towards 
 the right, a movement easily acquired in the 
 course of a few days. The copy-books or writing 
 copies in use in schools for right-handed pupils 
 can be used for left-handed beginners. 
 
 With the left hand, one can write an upright 
 hand equally well. Round-hand and medium 
 writing (in which the slant is mid- way between 
 that of English and upright writing), can also be 
 accomplished. 
 
 According to M. Albert Charleux lessons in 
 writing with the left hand should be taken at very 
 short intervals. The first attempts are scarcely 
 ever encouraging and the pupil is doubtful of 
 success. Another stumbling block to avoid is 
 that of wishing to get along too quickly. 
 
 The first attempts should be made with chalk 
 upon a blackboard (or on black paper fixed against 
 a wall). At first, the arm should be held at full 
 length, then, gradually the drawing should be 
 reduced until at last, it only needs a movement 
 of the wrist. These exercises (small drawings 
 the models of which will be found in the text) 
 should be executed standing upright, without 
 stirring the feet, and without bending the body. 
 
152 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 The hand, the arm, and the wrist having thus 
 obtained a preliminary training, the pupil will 
 complete his education by applying himself 
 to the drawing of letters on the blackboard. 
 The size of the writing should vary from 15 mm. 
 to 2 centimetres. It is not until after these 
 stages that writing in a copy-book should begin. 
 
 With the right hand, the copy-book is slightly 
 inclined towards the left ; with the left hand 
 it should be slightly inclined towards the right. 
 For either hand the elbow forms a pivot about 
 which, the fore-arm moves in the same direction 
 namely from left to right. The left fore-arm, 
 which is what we are interested in at the present 
 moment, describes a line which tends towards 
 the body as it descends towards the right. 
 The penholder should be lightly held, and it is 
 necessary to raise the pen as seldom as possible. 
 The paper will be held steady by means of a 
 paper-weight. When the maimed are able to 
 write a flowing hand, they may learn to write 
 round-hand. 
 
 This similarity of the two processes, which in 
 reality only constitute one, is an argument in their 
 favour. The only difference is the preliminary 
 exercises in M. Charleux's method, which, accord- 
 ing to M. Meurville, are useless. However, this 
 may be, children who shew a certain difficulty in 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 153 
 
 learning to write, get on well when they first 
 trace words on the blackboard. It may be 
 rightly said, that the adult pupil is not in exactly 
 the same position, having already practised 
 writing with the right hand, and we know that a 
 training acquired by one psycho-motor centre 
 transmits itself to the opposite side. The adult 
 would, therefore, have fewer difficulties to conquer 
 were it not that with age the manual adapta- 
 bility diminishes as a rule. We, therefore, 
 think that preliminary exercises may not be 
 altogether useless, although not indispensable, 
 they may help to graduate the difficulties, and 
 consequently to shorten the period of appren- 
 ticeship, and to make the steady progress made 
 by the pupil more evident. 
 
 At the moment of going to press with this 
 book, another study on the art of writing has 
 appeared, by a M. F. Garcin. 1 In order to 
 acquire the English handwriting and the medium 
 handwriting, with the left hand, the copy-book 
 should be placed upright in front of the chest, 
 so that the travel of the left arm will always be in 
 prolongation of the line of the slope. In short, 
 M. Garcin says, when writing with the left hand, 
 the line of the slope should always be in the 
 
 1 F. Garcin, Comment ecrire des deux mains. Paris, Nathan, 
 35 P- 
 
154 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 direction of the axis of the left arm. As regards 
 writing with the right hand the line of the slope 
 should always be perpendicular to the chest. 
 We must remember that the line of the writing is 
 the straight horizontal line upon which the writing 
 is traced, whilst the line of the slope is the 
 position of the axis of each letter in relation to 
 the line of writing. The position of the body 
 always remains the same. The result to be 
 obtained from the left hand should be exactly 
 the same as that given by the right hand, but 
 the two hands act by executing directly opposite 
 movements. 
 
 We will now give an account of the interesting 
 experiments made by the Polish military doctor, 
 Adolphi Klesk, who having had to deal with a 
 number of those injured in the right hand, warmly 
 advocated left-handed writing. According to 
 his observations, an adult man learns to write 
 with his left hand after three or four weeks' training 
 This study is beneficial for those who have had 
 arms amputated in the war, for it not only enables 
 them to write, but it also acts in an encouraging 
 way on the patient, by giving him a proof, as it 
 were, that the left hand if properly trained is 
 capable of learning some kind of craft. It is with 
 writing then, that a beginning should be made, 
 for to learn to write with the left hand consti- 
 
POWER AND APTITUDE FOR WORK 155 
 
 tutes a powerful pedagogic, medical, and social 
 asset. To begin with, the left hand has a 
 tendency to execute " reflected writing," and 
 it is by an effort of will of about eight day's 
 duration, that the ordinary handwriting gains 
 the upper hand. To begin with, too, the left 
 hand becomes very easily tired. The rhythmic 
 movements of the fore-arm slipping along the 
 paper without detaching the edge of the palm of 
 the hand from the copy-book, are very difficult 
 to acquire. The author recommends the writing 
 of letters on a large scale on a blackboard during 
 the time of training, and, when writing in a 
 copy-book, the use of soft, glazed paper and soft 
 pens and pencils. 
 
 Encouraged by the results of his experiments, 
 Dr. Klesk recommends ambidextrous writing 
 to parents, who should, at an early age, teach 
 their children to write with either hand, which 
 amongst other advantages, would result in a 
 more symmetrical development, and assure the 
 use of the second hand in the event of an 
 accident or illness. He especially cites the malady 
 known as " writer's cramp," which is met more 
 often amongst office clerks than amongst literary 
 men, because the former have to preserve the 
 aesthetic side of handwriting ; this trouble 
 may become so chronic that the sufferer finds 
 
156 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 himself obliged to change his occupation. 
 These observations of a military doctor are now 
 of such practical interest that we have thought it 
 interesting to recount them here, although they 
 in reality, only confirm the results of our early 
 experiments. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 157 
 
 IV. 
 
 BELGIAN METHODS OF TECHNICAL 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 I. PROGRESSIVE TECHNICAL EDUCATION 
 THROUGHOUT BELGIAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 The close collaboration of science and industry 
 will, in the near future be pressing, and numerous 
 are the tentative experiments already being made, 
 both in England and in France, with the object 
 of finding the most adequate solution to the 
 agonising problem of after-war necessities. In 
 order to study it properly, it is necessary to 
 begin at the beginning, at the point where technical 
 instruction begins ; that is to say, even in the 
 primary schools, which are supposed to give to 
 the citizens of the future a general education, 
 and to follow it up in the secondary schools, 
 and in the professional, technical, and industrial 
 colleges. 
 
 We will make a tour of this kind, through the 
 Belgian schools, keeping the communal and 
 provincial schools principally in view. 1 
 
 1 J. loteyko, Les Methodes beiges d' education technique. 
 Revue g6n6rale des Sciences, 30 May, 1917. 
 
158 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 Manual work, from year to year, acquires 
 increased importance, in the schools of the 
 town of Brussels. 1 " Very soon now," says 
 A. Nyns, Inspector of Primary Education, 
 " Manual work will form the basis of all our 
 teaching, because of its intuitive, concrete, 
 practical, and experimental character." 
 
 Henceforth, the child will learn as much through 
 the hand and the tool as through the brain and 
 the book. 
 
 The first courses of manual work were opened at 
 No. 12, Primary School for Boys, at Brussels, 
 in 1879.2 The subjects taken were joinery, 
 wood-turning, modelling, and locksmith's work 
 The classes were held for from four to five hours 
 every day, and the pupils were expected to pass 
 through each workshop. The teaching of 
 manual work had, at that period, a triple object ; 
 (i) the manual education of the child ; (2) the 
 industrial education of the children of the working 
 classes, to prepare them, in a general way, for 
 taking up various trades ; (3) to cultivate a 
 taste for handicrafts by popular classes. 
 
 In 1883, M. Sluys, Director of the Brussel's 
 Manual School for Teachers, and M. Van Kalken, 
 a professor at that school, undertook a journey 
 
 1 A. Nyns, Les travaux manuals a 1'Ecole primaire. 
 Pamphlet of 24 p., Brussels 1910. 
 
 a Needlework in Girls' Schools is of much earlier date. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 159 
 
 to Sweden, in order to study in that country 
 a really pedagogic organisation of manual training 
 It was in 1885, that there was opened in Brussels 
 the first normal course for the instruction of 
 teachers in woodwork, cardboard work, and 
 modelling, following the general methods of the 
 Swedish teacher Otto Salomon. In 1887, when 
 the first batch of teachers were qualified to teach 
 the manual work, this branch was entered on the 
 curriculum of the Normal Schools, and of all the 
 Schools in the city of Brussels. Manual training, 
 said the town programme, is looked upon as a 
 means towards the physical, intellectual and 
 moral development and perfecting of children. 
 We cannot aim at the direct teaching of special 
 trades. What is aimed at is, to develop general 
 ability, quickness, dexterity of both hands, 
 prompt and firm movement, a taste for and a 
 love of work, and to inculcate habits of order and 
 correctness, to develop the faculties of attention 
 and perception, to supply a more complete and a 
 deeper intuition of geometric ideas and forms 
 of calculation and the metric system, and to make 
 the pupils more persevering by application 
 to work, to shew the necessity of producing 
 nothing but complete and correct work, to 
 cultivate the sense of beauty through the 
 harmony of form and colour of the objects made, 
 
160 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 and to inform the pupils with a knowledge of the 
 technical processes which constitute the founda- 
 tions of scientific industries. 
 
 The methodology of manual work for boys 
 requires the analysis and understanding of 
 models and of tools, the demonstration of the pro- 
 cess of execution, and the construction of model 
 types. The pupils are gradually exercised in 
 the handling of tools. 
 
 The curriculum for the first standard (children 
 of from 7-8 years of age) includes : folding, 
 cutting-out, joining, weaving, and modelling. 
 The curriculum for the second standard (chil- 
 dren of from 9-10 years of age) includes : the 
 art of making cardboard articles, modelling 
 geometrical solids from plaster casts, common 
 objects from nature, from memory, and of their 
 own invention, etc. 
 
 The curriculum for the higher standard (chil- 
 dren of from 11-12 years of age), modelling 
 and wood-carving. The pupil's work from 
 models or plans. The models first copied are 
 horizontal or vertical projections, or sections. 
 The aesthetic side is most carefully attended to. 
 The course of wood-carving is given in a workshop. 
 The programme provides for ten and a half hours 
 per week, for the six years in a primary school, 
 one and a half hours for each of the first three 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 161 
 
 classes, and two hours for each of the three upper 
 classes. 
 
 Although the teaching of handicrafts in the 
 primary school is of a purely pedagogic kind, 
 it is none the less true, that thanks to the training 
 of the hand, and of the eye, which it involves, 
 this work develops the qualities of skill, indis- 
 pensable in the acquisition of a manual trade, 
 whatever it may be, which must influence the 
 ultimate special training of the pupils. 
 
 We will not here discuss the handicrafts in the 
 secondary schools. It will suffice to mention 
 their existence in all these schools and the exis- 
 tence of several well equipped workshops, bright, 
 light, and spacious, newly built, near secondary 
 schools, rejoicing in every modern appliance and 
 comfort, as, for example, Leon Lepage's secondary 
 school at Brussels. 
 
 The children leave the primary school at 12 
 or 13 years of age. A few continue their studies 
 in the secondary schools or in the athenaeums ; 
 the large majority are the children of the people, 
 and wish to devote themselves to some handicraft 
 after leaving the primary school. But they are 
 still too young to at once enter the training colleges 
 and also too weak from the physical standpoint. 
 
 The Secondary Schools (or Upper Primary 
 Schools), are intended to give these children a 
 
 L 
 
162 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 supplementary general education to enable 
 them to master such knowledge as may prove 
 most useful to them in life, whilst waiting until 
 they are old enough to enter a technical school. 
 The course of study in the Fourth Standard Schools 
 lasts two years. The Fourth Primary Standard 
 education includes three distinct courses, 1 (i) the 
 Fourth Standard for girls ; (2) the Fourth 
 Standard for boys of professional and commercial 
 tastes ; (3) the Fourth Standard for boys de- 
 siring an industrial career. The Fourth Standard 
 for girls is intended to complete the general 
 education of the pupils, and to initiate them 
 in one of the businesses connected with needle- 
 work. They are, in short, popular small training 
 schools where the apprenticeship is served amidst 
 scholarly and moral surroundings. The course 
 consists of the study of two languages (French 
 and Flemish), of arithmetic, commerce, natural 
 sciences, technology, hygiene, social economy, 
 domestic economy, the history of civilization in 
 Belgium, commercial geography, music, gymnas- 
 tics, and swimming. 
 
 The Fourth Standard for boys with professional 
 and commercial leanings, prepares youths for 
 administrative and commercial occupations ; 
 
 1 A. Nyns, Les ecoles de 4 degre, pamphlet of 14 p. Brussels 
 1910. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 163 
 
 those with tastes for handicrafts it trains for 
 manual work. 
 
 We will consider the latter. The children 
 are not apprenticed to a trade, but are taught the 
 modus operandi of the various callings. Further- 
 more, the scientific and theoretical knowledge 
 imparted to the pupils will be of great service 
 to them in their manual work. Manual work 
 can be usefully applied to other branches of the 
 curriculum such as designing, calculation, geo- 
 metry, physics, social economy. The pupils do 
 modelling and cardboard work, they do wood 
 and iron work. The courses of study have an 
 essentially practical tendency, and are given with 
 a view to their application to trade. 
 
 The curriculum of the city of Brussels, says, 
 in substance, that the object of these schools 
 "is to assist in the formation of a working class 
 which possesses an intelligent knowledge of the 
 work it performs, which is master of the machines 
 it employs, which reads and thinks, and which 
 is conscious of its own dignity." After this 
 general and technical preparation, the pupil, 
 now about 15 years of age, can freely enter any 
 technical school to serve his apprenticeship to 
 the calling he has chosen. 
 
 Amongst the Fourth Standard schools, that of 
 Saint-Gilles (Fauburg de Bruxelles), called the 
 
164 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 Morichar School, counts as one of the most 
 important in the country. Its Head Master, 
 M. Devogel, 1 has won for it a peculiar distinction, 
 and has made it a model school which has never 
 yet been surpassed. It will be interesting, we 
 think, to give a detailed description of this school, 
 basing our account on official documents, and 
 on the memory of many personal visits. 
 
 The Upper Primary School should not, says 
 M. Devogel, 2 be a duplicate of the Secondary 
 School. It is absolutely necessary to create an 
 organization for the working class, whereby 
 their sons can receive a general education pre- 
 paring them for all callings, to establish a school 
 where the children of the people, and of small 
 employers, who do not wish to adopt adminis- 
 trative work or become employees or clerks, 
 can receive clearly specialised manual training, 
 to found an institution where, in a word, the son 
 of the working man, who wishes to remain a 
 working man, desirous of starting on what we call 
 a manual career, can, whilst developing himself 
 as a whole, at the same time prepare himself for 
 his future social function. 
 
 The most useful knowledge to the working man 
 
 1 At the present time Director of the Brussels schools. 
 
 * V. Devogel, L'Ecole primaire superieure technique de 
 Saint-Gilles-les-Brux tiles (called 4th Standard), pamphlet of 
 104 pp., Brussels, 1911. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 165 
 
 includes Mathematics, the Sciences, Design, and 
 the Handicrafts. To these must be added the two 
 national languages (French and Flemish), history, 
 geography, industrial economy, some knowledge 
 of accountancy, hygiene and technology. Design 
 includes industrial design, and ornamental design. 
 Handicrafts include forestry, agriculture, masonry 
 and metal work. They are completed by a 
 course on tools which is the synthesis of the whole. 
 Technology is completed by numerous visits to 
 studios, workshops, and factories, paid during 
 the scholastic year and during the journeys at the 
 end of the year (five days). Lantern lectures are 
 used for a great number of the courses ; geography, 
 technology, etc. The scholastic year winds 
 up with an exhibition of all the work of all the 
 pupils. All courses are compulsory. 
 
 Let us examine the method adopted in the 
 teaching at the upper primary school of Saint 
 Gilles, which prides itself on being only a 
 primary school. Its special characteristic is 
 the inter-connection of its different branches, 
 the constant connection of the different courses, 
 and the intimate union between the lessons. 
 Thus, the different branches of mathematics are 
 constantly intermixed and combined with indus- 
 trial design, ornamental design is combined with 
 modelling, with wood-carving, metal work, etc. 
 
166 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 The school has stoutly declined to practise methods 
 based upon abstractions, holding that that can only 
 be an end, which is the logical outcome of a whole 
 series of anterior, concrete, material sensations. 
 A certain formula has lately, says M. Devogel, 
 achieved a great success in our country : the 
 school for life. It is either ingenuous or incomplete. 
 It says either too little, or says it badly. It is 
 simply Life in the School that should have been 
 written, and that is the motto of Saint Gilles. 
 
 " A school should reject," the Belgian teacher 
 goes on to say, " all that is not living, thus con- 
 forming to the evolution of existence, to the 
 life of man, to social science, to the science dis- 
 covered by humanity. Life in the School. 
 Let us be inspired by that, and let us open wide 
 the doors and the windows of our classes." 
 
 Every branch of instruction is looked at from 
 this point of view. The elements of design are 
 found in geometry and in nature ; these two 
 sources should be explored in succession. Geome- 
 try leads to the discovery of the meaning of a line. 
 The line being known, the vegetable or animal 
 element will be drawn quite naturally. All 
 designs are based on drawings from nature alone ; 
 copying is not allowed. Designs have to be made 
 with the most diverse materials as medium, 
 the pen, black and coloured crayons, red chalk, 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 167 
 
 charcoal, chalk, brush-wash, water-colour, water 
 colour and gum, oil colour, pastel. Plaster 
 models have been suppressed, when necessary 
 a natural model being given to each pupil (plant, 
 shell, insect). Perspective is taught from the 
 landscape (the drawing of a door, a wall, the 
 staircase of a hall, of a country cottage). The 
 child is allowed to colour his drawing as often as 
 possible. 
 
 The most important branch of the education 
 given is handicrafts, based upon geometry and 
 design both in close relation to them. The 
 school of Saint Gilles aims at giving the pupil a 
 manual training as wide as possible. " Yes," 
 M. Devogel says, "let him acquire his manual 
 humanities." Give to the artisan of the 
 future the sense of economic life. One might 
 easily fall into specialisation here ; now, it is 
 not our object to specialise. Aesthetic develop- 
 ment should also be striven for. Good taste 
 is of essential importance to the artisan. To 
 attain this end, it is indispensable that the child 
 should be made to work in as many raw materials 
 as possible and with as many tools as possible. 
 Consequently, the school was established like a 
 laboratory for handicrafts. 
 
 The school does not wish to act as a substitute 
 for the workshop. It is here that talent may be 
 
i68 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 awakened. And, M. Devogel adds, when compul- 
 sory education up to the age of 14 has become 
 law, 1 the Fourth Standard School will become 
 the natural sequel to the primary school for 
 the children of the people. 
 
 Let us take, as an example, iron work. The 
 first thing made is a plate, out of sheet-iron for 
 the handle of a drawer. Each pupil has a model. 
 This is analysed by the class and the teacher, 
 as to its nature, its object, its utility, its raw 
 material, its shape, and its dimensions. The 
 pupil takes the exact measurements, and makes a 
 free-hand sketch. They then adjourn to the 
 workshop. The teacher gives the necessary 
 technical explanations with regard to the tools, 
 the work, etc. Each pupil makes the object 
 according to the pattern. Nothing is more 
 curious than the lesson of invention. The pupils 
 are asked how the type of the plate made out of 
 sheet-iron may be altered eventually. The 
 pupils try to find out, and give their answers. 2 
 Finally, how is the plate to be ornamented ? 
 And what shall the ornamentation be ? What 
 tools shall be used, what machines, what moulding, 
 what lines ? The pupils then go home and think, 
 and are thus taught to use their own initiative or 
 
 1 Compulsory education in Belgium became law shortly 
 afterwards. 
 
 2 Devogel, loc. cit. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 169 
 
 enterprise, and to exercise their faculty of 
 invention. They all, always succeed in producing 
 good results. This lesson, by which the pupils 
 acquire a method, is adapted to the capacities 
 of the scholar. He searches, he discovers, he 
 invents with his own faculties. The pupil's 
 imagination is kept awake, developed, and 
 excited. By the end of the year, articles are made 
 in unison. The whole class then forms only one 
 workshop and the pupils discuss the outlines of 
 the project, the details to be made, etc. It is a 
 true initiation into social life, and the happy 
 results of this process will accompany the future 
 workman during the whole of his career. 
 
 We can estimate the value of the teaching 
 at the Fourth Standard School of Saint Gilles, 
 by glancing at M. Mat tot's two manuals, he 
 being a teacher at the school. The first of these 
 manuals is devoted to a Course on tools and 
 handicrafts,' 1 the second, 2 to Metal work in the 
 Student's workshop. In the preface of the first 
 of these books M. Devogel asks for compulsory 
 education up to 18 years ; primary, upper 
 primary, and industrial. 
 
 1 A. P. Mattot, Cours d'cuiils et de metiers manuels. Vol. 
 328 p. with 354 engravings, 1912 Brussels. Preface by 
 M. V. Devogel. Leb&gue. 
 
 8 The Same : Le travail des Metaux a I' atelier scolaire 
 Vol. of 214 p. with 128 engravings, 1913 Brussels. Preface 
 by M. V. Devogel, Leb^gue. 
 
170 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 The Industrial School, under the University 
 of Labour, would comprise the continuation of 
 primary, and upper primary studies, and the 
 handling of tools of a mechanical type. Appren- 
 ticeship, in other words specialisation, would 
 be served or taught in the workshop, the timber- 
 yard, the factory. Everywhere, from 6 to 18 
 years of age, teaching should have general develop- 
 ment and the awakening of vocational talent, 
 as its aim ; everywhere the dream would be 
 to form the man. These will be the " humanities " 
 for manual or technical craftsmen. 
 
 General technology will play a considerable 
 part in this programme. The workman of the 
 future will thus be liberally instructed. The 
 technical education of man will thus be realised. 
 Through all the stages of education it will stand 
 side by side, and rank equally with physical, 
 intellectual, moral and aesthetic education. 
 It will be studied at the same time as these other 
 subjects in the primary school. In the upper 
 primary school, and in the industrial college, 
 it will be based on a solid foundation of mathe- 
 matics, natural science, and design. The course 
 on tools is more than synthetic, it is adopting 
 M. Paul Hy man's saying the philosophy of 
 Manual work. 
 
 M. Mattot, quoting Franklin, says, " that 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 171 
 
 which distinguishes man from the other animals is, 
 that he manufactures tools." The author gives 
 very complete lists of tools, he distinguishes 20 
 classes of them. Each instrument is described, 
 and a very precise idea is given of it. The book 
 is illustrated with 350 engravings. 
 
 The second book is devoted to metal work. 
 It is a complete guide to raw materials, to tools, 
 and the procedure of working in metals, with 
 suggestions for exercises for the first (13-14 years of 
 age), and second (14-15 years of age) years' training. 
 
 We see that the school of Saint Gilles fully 
 accepts the pedagogic theory of handicrafts, which 
 the Americans have formulated in the following 
 manner. 1 ' The scientific theory of education 
 through the handicrafts is definitely established. 
 All conscious movement has its origin in an 
 excitation of the motor cells of the brain. Thought 
 without action, may develop the imagination, 
 but leaves the will-power uncultivated. Will 
 can only be developed through action. All 
 muscular movements react on the brain cells by 
 sensation, and fix themselves in the centres of 
 association in the form of perceptions and images. 
 In order to increase the receptivity of the brain, 
 a rational education requires that we shall vary 
 
 1 0. Buyse, Methodes americaines d 'education gknbvale et 
 technique, 3rd. ed., 1913, Dunod and Pinat, Paris. 
 
172 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 the nature of the movements exacted by manual 
 work, so that all the other groups may be 
 interested in succession. From these facts it is 
 evident that, in order to develop the entire motor 
 region of the brain, full and various exercises 
 must be multiplied, and directed in such a way 
 as to sharpen the sensitiveness, to quicken thought, 
 and to strengthen the will. If the movement 
 becomes a habit the result of this will also be 
 that it will be made without reflection and will 
 cease to develop the motor cells, and, therefore, 
 cease to have any educational value. It is only 
 during the first period of excitation, that the 
 action of manual work is efficacious. Exercises 
 pushed beyond the educative point, may become 
 the means of preparing for more advanced work, 
 of an industrial kind, but they can no longer be 
 ranked amongst those which contribute to 
 general development. 
 
 " The result of this is, that the educational 
 action of the various forms of manual work should 
 be measured by the progression of the mental 
 reactions which they are capable of provoking. 
 This is why some teachers cause girls to perform 
 the same work as boys, in the primary, and even 
 in the secondary schools." 
 
 In a recent article, 1 M. R. Astier, a senator 
 
 1 R. Astier, Les travaux Manuels, Le Journal, 15 May, 1917. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 173 
 
 and president of the Commission on Technical 
 Education in France, asks why the question 
 concerning the reorganisation of industrial 
 education in France, officially propounded in 
 1905, has not yet been answered. One reason 
 for this regrettable inertia is due to a prejudice, 
 far too wide-spread in France, which has a tendency 
 to look down upon manual work as derogatory. 
 Now, M. Astier affirms that there is no thorough 
 technical teaching without manual work. That 
 constitutes its base, its point of departure. Now, 
 owing to a national fault which has become 
 more pronounced during the last century, the 
 Frenchman seems to look upon manual work as 
 " servile work." He will not see that without 
 it the most ingenious creations of the mind, the 
 ideas of a Papin, a Pasteur, of a Berthelot, could 
 not have been realised. The one ambition of the 
 middle classes for their sons is that they should 
 enter either the liberal professions or become 
 officials. 
 
 We believe the danger to be even greater than 
 M. Astier warns us of, because the working classes 
 themselves think they are raising themselves a 
 step in the social scale by pushing their sons into 
 bureaucratic careers. We have seen what Bel- 
 gium has done for the workman who wishes to 
 remain a working man. It seems as though it 
 
174 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 might be possible to efficaciously oppose these 
 bad tendencies and prejudices by a suitable 
 education. There are various ways of presenting 
 work under an agreeable aspect. In the first 
 place, the feeling of human solidarity makes one 
 happy and proud to contribute to a common 
 task, not with the object of enriching the master, 
 but for the common good of society. Therefore, 
 all that exalts and ennobles labour should be 
 made clear. In the second place, there is the 
 aesthetic side. For this the works of poets, 
 sculptors, and painters who have made the 
 apotheosis of labour should be popularized. 
 Force, courage, perseverance, all have beauty. 
 And the clank of metals, the heat of factories, 
 the flames of the furnace, coal mining, all speak 
 an appealing language, more proud and attractive 
 than that of the peaceful occupations of a bureau- 
 crat. 
 
 Now let us pass on to technical education pro- 
 perly so-called ( 1 , 2 , 3 ). 
 
 Councils for the improvement of technical 
 teaching have been formed in Hainaut, in Brabant, 
 
 1 j. loteyko. I'Universitc du travail de Charlcroi et le pro- 
 bleme de I'apprentisage (Revue generate des sciences, 15 fevrier, 
 1917. 
 
 * Charles Gheude, I' Enseignement technique dans le Brabant. 
 Publication de la Lignedel'Enseignement, 21 p. Brussels, 1912. 
 
 3 J. H. de Wemel, Enseignement technique pour jeunes 
 gens et adaults. Enseig. de la ville de Bruxelles. Broch. 
 de 45 p., 1910 Brussels. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 175 
 
 and in Brussels. The technical training of the 
 workman has been placed in the first rank of the 
 social problems of the day. The numerous 
 technical schools founded by the city of Brussels 
 have many aims, they are principally : to 
 improve the craft, so as to train picked workmen 
 (school of jewellery, of typography, book-binding, 
 gilding, lead work, plumbing, mechanics, etc.) ; 
 to put the young men of the country in a position 
 to carry on, in their entirety, trades to a great 
 extent monopolised by foreigners (school of 
 hairdressing) ; to remedy the inadequate pre- 
 paration in languages, and accountancy ; to 
 fight against " machine-ism ; " to give birth to a 
 taste for the beautiful and good ; to enable 
 national industries to successfully sustain the 
 struggle against foreign competition (school of 
 lithography) ; to keep in touch with progress ; 
 to improve public taste by improving the artisans ; 
 to democratize teaching by making it accessible 
 to all ; to create a remunerative trade ; to 
 revive a trade, fallen into decay by reason of a 
 difficult apprenticeship and rudimentary organisa- 
 tion ; to fight against an immoderate infatuation 
 for office careers ; to prevent the artisan from 
 becoming reduced to the role of a mere machine 
 without any ideals ; to take physical and in- 
 tellectual aptitudes into account ; to avoid the 
 
176 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 creation of inefficient artisans who would encumber 
 the trade ; and to establish a connection between 
 the various trades that have points of contact. 
 The complementary teaching of ideas in which 
 young people might be lacking, the study of all 
 papers of technical interest, the forming of special 
 libraries, holding lantern lectures, visits to museums, 
 monuments, factories, excursions, the exhibi- 
 tion of works of past scholars, all combine in 
 making up an exhaustive curriculum. 
 
 It is impossible to speak of each school separ- 
 ately. We must be content to indicate the 
 methods of teaching adopted in some of them. 
 
 The characteristic of the teaching in the School 
 of design, modelling and wood-carving, consists in 
 (contrary to the special academies of design and 
 modelling, which generally only teach from 
 the classics) teaching the pupil how he should 
 understand his work, the object of which is its 
 application to the building and furniture-making 
 industries. The subject given is first of all 
 sketched, then modelled according to the sketch, 
 and is finally executed in wood. The pupil 
 is at the same time initiated in a knowledge of the 
 different styles employed in decorative art and 
 furnishing. At the technical school of mechanics 
 the professors avoid empirical work and give the 
 most rational scientific basis for the manufacture 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 177 
 
 of the object to be produced. The construction 
 of an apparatus is made in accordance with a 
 plan sketched by the pupil, and afterwards 
 verified by the master. 
 
 The teaching in the training school for plumbing 
 aims at the training of certified sanitary plumbers, 
 such as have been asked for by the various 
 International Congresses of Hygiene. They 
 furthermore endeavour to resuscitate the industry 
 in ornamental lead-work. Sanitary technology 
 is taught in two, three, or four years of study. 
 
 The pupil who leaves at the end of three years 
 should be competent to, himself, elaborate a 
 complete system of sanitary drainage and to 
 carry it through in all its details. Drawing, 
 physics, and chemistry are the subjects of serious 
 study. 
 
 The industrial school of ornamental tapestry 
 trains its pupils in the problems of aesthetics and 
 art. An art decorator cannot ignore the dis- 
 tinctive characteristics of the different styles of 
 house furniture, and inside decoration. A course 
 on the history of art, answers this purpose the best. 
 
 The course for typography has for its object the 
 training of picked workman in order that Belgian 
 printing shall not only be able to compete satis- 
 factorily with foreign productions, but also to 
 recapture the prosperity and renown which she 
 
 M 
 
178 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 enjoyed in Plantin's days. The creation of a 
 style, of a national method, that will allow of the 
 recognition of books printed in Belgium, just as 
 this is the case with some that are printed in 
 Germany, France, England, etc., each of these 
 countries possessing a style of its own, is another 
 object. The motto taken " raise the level of the 
 typographic art," indicates a clearly artistic 
 programme, which has a still higher aim, to 
 make creative craftsmen, without, however, neglect- 
 ing the mechanical side, which becomes, more 
 and more important every day. The courses 
 in design develop good taste, the sense of observa- 
 tion, and the analysis of complicated subjects, 
 and permit of the production of the complete work. 
 The course on colouring has three principal 
 objects : (i) To enable the workman to produce 
 all the shades of colour with a sure hand, by a 
 study of colour and material ; (2) To make of 
 the typographist the direct collaborator of the 
 artist by enabling him to acquire ideas on art, 
 sufficient for this purpose ; (3) To enable the 
 workman to use coloured inks. These three 
 points are developed in thirty lessons in the 
 theoretical course. The practical course consists 
 of sixty lessons. 
 
 As far as the book industry is concerned, the 
 city of Brussels possesses a Technical school of 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 179 
 
 Art-binding and gilding, where, side by side with 
 subjects of a technical nature a course is given 
 on the history of the book and of book-binding. 
 
 The Commercial School is a school for the 
 training of clerks. 
 
 The city of Brussels has declared its determina- 
 tion to see the founding of Normal Technical 
 Schools, and Industrial Universities, which shall 
 constitute a Federation of the Industrial Schools 
 of the Kingdom. A second resolve is to institute 
 a propaganda in favour of compulsory industrial 
 training as a consequence of compulsory primary 
 education. 
 
 2. THE CHARLEROI UNIVERSITY OF LABOUR. 
 
 The problem of Technical Education and 
 training, ranks amongst the most important of 
 our century wherein industrialisation is pushed 
 to an extreme, and the problem has become 
 exaggerated since events have rendered workmen 
 scarce, even though, after war conditions should be 
 marked by a renewed need, and an accelerated 
 productivity. All eyes are turned, so to speak, 
 towards that side of life, towards the best methods 
 of organising it and fostering an increase of 
 productivity. 
 
i8o THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 We think that an enquiry concerning the 
 Belgian technical institutions will furnish a really 
 interesting study of activity, Belgium being the 
 country where industrial production has attained 
 to a rate unknown elsewhere in Europe at present, 
 in proportion to the number of its inhabitants. 
 The Charleroi University of Labour, which is well- 
 known to the writer personally, thanks to visits 
 and studies made upon the spot, has happily 
 escaped the bombardment, from the effects of 
 which the town itself has suffered terribly. For 
 a description of it we will borrow the following 
 passage from M. Omer Buyse, former director 
 of the institution 1 " From the Mound of Waterloo 
 which dominates the agglomeration of boroughs, 
 of which Charleroi is the centre, the view stretches 
 over a region which has not its equal in the 
 world, from the standpoint of the concentration 
 of industry and the density of the working-class 
 population. In the foreground, the city which 
 has not yet reached its full extent, and its suburbs, 
 descends to the banks of the Sambre ; the 
 industrial landscape stretches out beyond ; the 
 framework of the winding gear of the coalmines 
 is visible all over the place, and the landscape 
 is punctuated with the rounded hillocks at the 
 
 1 Omer Buyse, Methodes americaines d' Education generate 
 et technique, 3rd. ed., 1913. Paris 847 p. and 398 ills. The 
 last chapter is devoted to the University of Labour. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 181 
 
 pit-heads ; by the great bays of the glass works, 
 the, balls of cherry-coloured glass attached to the 
 retorts of the blowers may be seen balancing 
 themselves with a majestic rhythm. A multitude 
 of chimneys belch out their black smoke ; the 
 heavy outlines of the tall furnaces stand out 
 against the foundries, forges, rolling-mills, work- 
 shops for the manufacture of metal work, mechani- 
 cal, and electrical, chemical factories, and those 
 for refractory products. Of an evening above the 
 steel- works jets of shimmering light rise up, 
 which illuminate the foggy sky like a gigantic 
 blaze of fireworks. Puffs of white vapour, 
 escaping from the engines are the outward signs 
 of the intense labour which the working popula- 
 tion performs for its daily bread, at the price 
 of effort and of danger, a thousand yards 
 under-ground, and within the shade of the 
 factories. The sight gives an impression of 
 grandeur. 
 
 " The province of Hainaut could not have chosen 
 a more appropriate site for the first University 
 of Labour which it founded in accordance with 
 the grand conception of M. Paul Pastur, its 
 permanent deputy, and M. Alfred Langlois, 
 at that time Inspector of Technical Education 
 in Hainaut. That institution combines with the 
 activities of that laborious region to dominate 
 
182 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 the country like an ideal for the technical and 
 moral raising of the working class. 
 
 " The title, ' University of Labour,' which 
 covers the whole of the technical educational 
 system for Hainaut concentrated at Charleroi, 
 is very arresting to those interested in industrial 
 progress and the education of the working man. 
 A title of nobility, a tardy homage paid to 
 manual labour on which compliments and 
 favours are too rarely showered, because it is 
 performed by those whose education and training 
 has always been neglected ! " 
 
 The two buildings occupied by the University 
 of Labour cover a surface of three and three- 
 quarter acres ; the style of architecture is sober and 
 severe ; in the large hall stands the statue of 
 the Hammerer ' by Constantin Meunier. The 
 Institution was founded by the province of 
 Hainaut; the Belgian traditions of decentralisa- 
 tion, and communal and provincial autonomy, 
 give to communal and provincial administrations 
 the right of initiative This plan of action 
 permits of the existence of an organisation de- 
 voted to the local needs of the population. The 
 University of Labour has come into being in the 
 most industrial province in the country. Its 
 management was undertaken by M. Omer Buyse, 
 who had for a long time studied the conditions 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 183 
 
 of technical education in the United States of 
 America. M. Omer Buyse resigned his post 
 in 1914, only a few months before the outbreak 
 of war, and the invasion of Belgium, for the 
 benefit of the second University of Labour, which 
 was to be founded in Brussels. The capital of 
 Belgium did not wish to loiter behind on the 
 road to industrial and technical progress, and it 
 commissioned Mr. Buyse to organise a similar 
 institution (which was also to include a section 
 reserved for women), intended to act as a centre 
 for the whole of the technical and industrial 
 schools of the province of Brabant. What fate 
 is in store for this new foundation ? We trust 
 it awaits its realization in a not far distant future. 
 
 We will return briefly to the arrangement 
 and the character of the various uses of the 
 University of Labour at Charleroi, taking 
 official documents as our guides. 
 
 The district of Charleroi includes six industrial 
 communal schools, which have six thousand 
 working children as scholars. In conjunction 
 with these schools, the University of Labour has 
 instituted a system of technical education, 
 which comprises the Industrial Day Schools and 
 Industrial Evening and Sunday courses, the 
 middle stage being the Upper Industrial School, 
 and the highest the Upper Finishing Course. 
 
184 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 Thus, to every young man of intelligence and 
 perseverance, this institution offers graduated 
 series of courses that he may pass through (without 
 being called upon to make any pecuniary sacrifices) 
 and raise himself from the most modest social 
 level to the highest point of technical knowledge. 
 One noteworthy characteristic of the method 
 of teaching introduced in the University of Labour 
 is the amount of experimental work done ; side 
 by side with the theoretical course, a number of 
 technical manipulations and experiments are 
 made ; by this means a large amount of material 
 is dealt with. It is thus that the physical and 
 mechanical phenomena which form the base of 
 almost all constructive industries are taught, 
 in an experimental and quantitative form analo- 
 gous to the conditions of the industry itself. 
 For example, all the phenomena and the laws 
 which refer to the flowing of fluids, are demon- 
 strated by means of elaborate apparatus, such as 
 a branch canal from the town water works, of 
 which the pressure and supply are regulated 
 by taps and measured by metres, and manometers. 
 Ideas as to the mechanical properties of materials 
 are verified on apparatus for testing by bending 
 tension, compression, torsion and shock, identical 
 to those actually employed in the industries 
 themselves. The courses on machine tools for 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 185 
 
 joiners and modellers are supported by experi- 
 ments on industrial machines ; ideas on boilers, 
 steam kettles, etc., are taught by practical manipu- 
 lations ; the course on electricity is experimental, 
 as is also that on thermodynamics. 
 
 The Eleven Industrial Evening and Sunday 
 Schools are intended for the training : (i) of 
 printers and typographers ; (2) of plumbers 
 and glaziers ; (3) zinc-workers ; (4) bakers ; 
 (5) pastry-cooks ; (6) market-gardeners ; (7) 
 locksmiths ; (8) tailors ; (9) industrial model- 
 lers ; (10) moulders and founders ; (n) elec- 
 trical fitters. These schools only take young 
 men who are really employed in the trade ; they 
 are attended by 500 apprentices and workmen. 
 
 The bakery school of the University of Labour 
 was the first to be established in France and in 
 Belgium, and its establishment awakened keen 
 curiosity in the bakers' union, the trade having 
 been, in the highest degree, traditional. Amongst 
 scientific trades, that which is taught in the 
 plumbing school is of great interest ; it has 
 preserved its manual character. As regards the 
 school of electricity, the basis of the study, as here 
 taught, is technical electricity which permits of 
 experimental study in the electrical laboratory 
 and in the generation of continuous and alterna- 
 ting currents, of the phenomena and laws of 
 
186 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 electricity, and of its application to lighting, 
 its motor power and other transformations 
 of electrical energy. The technological courses 
 on electrical industries are nothing but one 
 long succession of manipulations which are 
 performed by the pupils themselves on some 
 material connected with the industry, under the 
 guidance of the teachers ; the theory of the 
 operations is taught by a course of lectures 
 delivered in the auditorium of the laboratory 
 itself. Technical drawing plays one of the most 
 important parts in this teaching. The evening 
 schools have the effect of extending the scientific 
 and trade knowledge of the workmen, and of 
 widening their productive powers. 
 
 The Industrial Day Schools, are four in number, 
 and have four school years : The School of 
 Mechanics, the School of Electricity, the School 
 of Joinery, and the Modelling School. They are 
 attended by 700 apprentices, free of charge. 
 The branches of trade taught here give the 
 apprentices a preparatory training for every 
 trade. In the first year's course, the beginners 
 execute a graduated series of subjects in wood 
 and in iron ; their aptitudes are indicated and 
 their tastes are developed. At the end of the year 
 they take up one technical speciality, which they 
 choose under the advice of their teachers and 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 187 
 
 parents. All the pupils do the work themselves, 
 keep their own tools in order, and draw their own 
 plans. The course on the technology of con- 
 struction, combined with the mechanics and the 
 strength of materials, completes the technical 
 training of builders, etc. An experimental 
 course on heat and steam engines completes the 
 industrial training of mechanical engineers (auto- 
 mobile engineers, etc.). A wage of from 5-20 
 centimes per hour is paid to the pupils during 
 their apprenticeship. 
 
 The Upper Industrial School is of a superior 
 order. Those employers and workmen who 
 have, thanks to their taste and skill, been able to 
 leave elementary industrial schools and trade 
 schools, have the means of perfecting themselves 
 in the evening and Sunday courses of the Upper 
 Industrial School, which are spread over three 
 years because of there being only nine hour's 
 attendance per week. In order to be admitted to the 
 Upper Industrial School, the pupil must be 18 
 years of age, which assumes that apprenticeship 
 must have been served, and the knowledge of a 
 trade acquired. Six hundred pupils attended these 
 courses in 1912-3 ; they were distributed among 
 nine sections, which represented the large indus- 
 tries of the district, that is to say : (a) Mechanical 
 Engineers and Draughtsmen ; (b) Electricians ; 
 
1 88 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 (c) Civil Engineers ; (d) Mining ; (e) Chemical 
 Industries ; (/) Metallurgical Industries ; (g) In- 
 dustrial Arts ; (h) Science of Accountancy ; (i) Cor- 
 respondents. And it is a most interesting sight 
 to see the auditoriums and the laboratories 
 crowded with men of from 18-20, sometimes 
 30 years of age, who, after the tiring occupations 
 of the day, come there to attend courses for an 
 additional three years. This effort is chiefly 
 necessitated by the rapid changes in the processes 
 of working. The Upper Industrial School 
 takes an active part in the progress of this depart- 
 ment of industry, by providing those workmen 
 already trained with the foundations of a perfect 
 scientific and technical education. The scientific 
 character of the courses given here is clearly 
 acknowledged. Besides, it is experience which 
 is its essential foundation ; from the standpoint 
 of experimental methods, the school possesses 
 a wealth of appliances. In certain sections it 
 is quite complete (the electrical for example). 
 The metallurgical and chemical laboratories, 
 with their spacious halls, are provided with 
 tables to work at, with ovens and with all the 
 apparatus necessary for the study of electro- 
 chemistry. 
 
 The finishing courses in technology are intended 
 for all the young men of the wealthy classes 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 189 
 
 destined to form a staff of specialists for the great 
 national industries of the country. This course 
 entails at least two hundred hours of instruction, 
 and manipulation, and entitles the students 
 to a Technician's Diploma. It now remains for 
 us to speak of the Technological Museum. The 
 first purpose of this Museum is to contribute to 
 the improvement of the methods of technical 
 teaching ; this purpose is attained by exhibiting 
 the works of industrial schools, by normal courses, 
 and by the central laboratory of the schools. 
 
 The normal courses for the Professors at the 
 commercial and industrial schools, which have 
 been given since 1905, are an indispensable 
 complement to technical teaching. These courses 
 are intended to attract those workmen and em- 
 ployees who have been selected by their Upper 
 Industrial School for a professorial career ; these 
 courses last for two years and are attended 
 by 80 students. 
 
 The Museum sends, free of cost, to those 
 schools which ask for them, its technological 
 collections and its apparatus, to enable them 
 to extend the field of their demonstrations, 
 which are generally circumscribed ; these col- 
 lections are also accessible to parties of scholars 
 from other schools, when conducted by their 
 professors ; industrial experiments and experi- 
 
igo THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 mental meetings are arranged for them in their 
 own laboratories, thus bringing those industrial 
 schools which are too isolated, into touch with 
 current ideas. Seventeen trade asssociations, of 
 which thirteen are under patronage, and four 
 artisan, aid its efforts to attract the industrial 
 classes towards a regeneration of labour. 
 
 The Museum possesses some superb collections, 
 such as apparatus illustrative of the types of 
 mechanism invented from the time of the invention 
 of the steam engine down to the present day, 
 collections connected with metallurgical indus- 
 tries, chemistry, ceramics, brewing, distilling, 
 and soap making, and which demonstrate synop- 
 tically the processes through which the raw 
 materials pass in these trades. The collections 
 in all their variety, serve to illustrate labour. 
 In the lecture hall of the library, visitors are 
 permitted to consult the books and to make 
 notes and plans. 
 
 A staff for commercial consultations exists 
 and gives most useful aid. We may also mention 
 intermittent courses for trained masters and men, 
 courses which make demonstrations and which 
 offer valuable help to those who think themselves 
 too old to attend the regular courses of a school 
 (they are attended by many thousands of 
 auditors), and systematically organised trade 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 191 
 
 competitions having for their object the stimula- 
 tion of the workman in his endeavours to attain 
 self-improvement. In this manner in the course 
 of a year, the University of Labour has organised 
 competitions between typographers, tailors, plum- 
 bers, masons, plasterers, and bakers. 
 
 To sum up the University of Labour, based 
 upon the principles of American methods of 
 technical education, brought over from the 
 United States by Omer Buyse, renders the greatest 
 service to the industrial province of Hainaut. 
 Opened in 1903 with 152 pupils it has collected 
 together a permanent population of nearly 2,000 
 scholars. The pupils trained in these schools 
 have materially contributed to the improvement 
 of the technical methods of factories and workshops. 
 
 3. BELGIAN INITIATIVE IN THE INDUSTRIAL 
 RE-EDUCATION OF THOSE MAIMED IN THE WAR, 
 IN FRANCE. 
 
 In this triumph of applied science, the Province 
 of Hainaut has not forgotten the unfortunate 
 victims of accidents incurred in the prosecution 
 of their work ; it has dreamed of re-constructing 
 
192 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 a new life for them, also based upon productive 
 labour. 
 
 The School for those crippled and broken by toil, 
 established by the Province at Charleroi, could 
 certainly never have anticipated such a glorious 
 destiny as was reserved for it only a few years 
 after its foundation. M. Herriot, Mayor of Lyons 
 and Senator for the Rhone, has not hesitated to 
 declare that " all the schools for the re-education 
 of those wounded in the war must be regarded 
 as branches of the School for Cripples at 
 Charleroi." 
 
 Before recording the part played by Belgium, 
 and particularly by the Province of Hainaut, 
 in the work of the re-education of those wounded 
 in France, let us devote a few words to the 
 School at Charleroi. 
 
 Its inspirer was M. Pastur, permanent deputy 
 for Hainant. In the course of a minute enquiry 
 he learnt that most of those maimed in the 
 industries were condemned to idleness. In 
 collaboration with M. Caty, he, in 1907, laid 
 before the provincial Council of Hainaut a paper 
 entitled : L' Assistance aux Estropies par la 
 creation d'ecoles d' apprentissage et d y ateliers. 
 (Assistance for the injured, by the establishment 
 of schools of apprenticeship, and workshops). 
 The authors asked that such a school should be 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 193 
 
 founded for the Province of Hainaut, at 
 Charleroi. The proposal was accepted, and that 
 same year, a commission composed of MM. 
 Pastur, Caty, Balthazar, and Dourlet, was sent 
 on a mission to Sweden, Norway, Germany, 
 and France, there to study industries for the 
 maimed. 
 
 In 1908, the school for cripples was founded at 
 Charleroi, the only one actually existing in 
 Belgium itself, 1 and the first in Western Europe. 
 The school was placed under the management 
 of Dr. Dourlet. 2 The aim of the school is to 
 place those injured in their work in a position 
 to derive what benefit they can from whatever 
 capacity for work there may be left to them ; 
 for this a special training is required, based upon 
 the nature of the physical handicap from which 
 they are suffering, and upon an industry appro- 
 priate to their remaining powers. The School 
 for Cripples is connected with the technical 
 institutions founded by the Province of Hainaut, 
 and to the Charleroi University of Labour in 
 particular. Each apprentice, after the first 
 month, receives wages, and meals in the canteen 
 
 1 Several months before the war, the Province of Brabant 
 took a similar step. 
 
 2 Dourlet. L'Ecole provinciate d'Apprentissage et Us 
 Atelier pour Estropies de Charleroi. Revue Psychologique, 
 Vol. I 1908, pp. 280-287. 
 
 N 
 
I 9 4 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 are free. The chief workshops are those for 
 carpet - weaving, basket - making, brush - making, 
 saddlery, harness-making, and orthopaedics, and 
 al^o schools for tailors, book-binding, and 
 cardboard work, shoemaking and accountancy. 
 The School for Cripples at Charleroi supplies a 
 want ; the number of its pupils, from its first 
 beginning, is the best proof of this. Its activities 
 have rendered great services, by giving to the 
 crippled, heretofore generally doomed to beggary 
 and a life of privation, a craft which allows of 
 their living honourably by their work. According 
 to reports which we have received, the School 
 at Charleroi has already begun to train some of 
 those maimed in the war. 
 
 Several months before the war broke out, 
 M. Herriot, the Mayor of Lyons, visited the 
 School for Cripples at Charleroi. He was struck 
 by its practical utility and its humane work. 
 One saw, for example, a man who had had both 
 fore-arms amputated, occupied, thanks to special 
 apparatus, in nailing brushes ; one of the stumps 
 bore a block of steel which served as a hammer, 
 the other a leathern prosthesis furnished with a 
 loadstone with which to place the nails. The 
 school has its shop of prosthetic appliances where 
 the ingenuity of the doctor seeks a solution to 
 the most varied problems. As much care is 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 195 
 
 bestowed upon the intellectual development 
 of the pupils as upon their physical re- 
 education. 1 
 
 The Mayor of Lyons had determined on 
 founding a similar school in his own town, 
 when the world-war broke out, and turned his 
 thoughts into other channels. It was then 
 that he adapted the Charleroi methods to 
 the re-education of the victims of the war, 
 and he opened the first School for the Wounded 
 at Lyons on 16 December, 1914. He entrusted 
 its organisation and management to M. Baseque, 
 the secretary of the Charleroi University of Labour. 
 The collaboration of the Charleroi University 
 is thus clearly shewn, and when M. Poincare 
 went over the Institution at Lyons, he was 
 able to appreciate the first fruits of the fine 
 co-operation between France and Belgium : 
 some hundreds of those wounded in the war, 
 those who have had an upper or a lower limb 
 amputated, and those suffering from ankylosis, 
 become gradually able to take up work again, 
 thanks to the ingenious apparatus and systems 
 for re-education, thought out by the technical 
 staff of the institution. 
 
 The second Industrial School for the wounded 
 
 1 Ed. Herriot, L'Ecole des blesses. Le Journal, Paris 
 23 Nov., 1914. 
 
196 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 to be opened was that of Saint Maurice, 
 Paris. 
 
 It was again for Belgian collaboration that the 
 French applied when founding the third Industrial 
 School for the Wounded, which is that at Mont- 
 pellier. Its technical manager is M. Drousart, 
 General Secretary of the provincial schools for 
 technical instruction, in the town of Tournay. 
 Its Medical Director is Dr. Jeanbrau, Professor 
 of Medicine at Montpellier. The institution is 
 modelled upon that at Charleroi and amongst 
 its teachers is M. Tamenne of Charleroi, whose 
 right arm has been amputated, and who gives his 
 writing and educational courses with his left 
 hand Specialists teach joinery, cabinet-making, 
 varnishing, wood - turning, plan - drawing, ac- 
 countancy, short-hand, etc. 
 
 The schools at Lyons arid Montpellier, organised 
 and directed by two Belgians, are institutions 
 which depend entirely upon the French Govern- 
 ment, and are not supposed to admit any but French 
 pupils. Nevertheless, the Montpellier School 
 has a large contingent of Russian wounded, 
 and will shortly be admitting some Serbians 
 As to the Belgian wounded, they receive their 
 re-education at the Belgian School at Post-Villez 
 (Eure), which was opened in October, 1915. 
 This school, as well as the Belgian Depot for 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 197 
 
 Invalids of the War at Saint Adresse, have 
 been established by the Belgian Ministry of 
 War, without the help of the technical educa- 
 tion staff of Hainaut. The Charleroi school 
 has, in each case, indirectly served as a 
 model for all the schools for the wounded 
 that have been founded in France since the war. 
 
 There is room to mention here the part taken 
 by the Belgians in the invention of new prosthetic 
 apparatus. These may be divided into two 
 large groups : (i) Prosthetic Apparatus, for the 
 lower limbs (peg-legs and artificial legs) ; (2) Pre- 
 hensile apparatus (upper limbs). 
 
 Most interesting instruments have been inven- 
 ted by the Belgians for the lower limbs. Dr. 
 Hendrickx, of the Rouen Hospital, and Dr. 
 Martin, from the Depage Hospital at La Panne, 
 have invented a wooden leg (on the Ameri- 
 can system), that is quite remarkable. We 
 had the opportunity of seeing an exhibition of 
 certain models at the Congress of the Allies for 
 the study of industrial re-education, which was 
 held in Paris at the Grand Palais, in May, 1917. 
 The French Government was keenly interested 
 in these appliances and approved the principle 
 on which they were made. The Belgian army 
 was the first to adopt the system of American 
 artificial legs. 
 
198 THE SCIENCE OF LABOUR 
 
 M. Drousart l had some prehensile appliances, 
 which have given entire satisfaction, made at 
 the Montpellier school, and these have been 
 adopted by the Department of Public Health. 
 They are issued to all those who have suffered 
 amputation in the XVI district. One innova- 
 tion is of great interest. The school has 
 succeeded in teaching the wounded how to make 
 these prosthetic appliances. This presents two 
 undeniable advantages, (i) The number of 
 specialists in this art had become quite insufficient 
 since the necessities of the war had led to the 
 invention of new orthopaedic appliances ; it is, 
 therefore, to a certain extent, a new craft that 
 has arisen, and it was right that the victims 
 of the war should, themselves, be the first to 
 profit by it ; (2) The wounded soldiers, having 
 themselves become the makers of the instruments, 
 are most valuable advisers to those who invent 
 the instruments that are to replace the missing 
 or paralyzed limb. 
 
 We have thought it would be of interest to 
 add this short notice of the working of the 
 
 1 Ed. Drousart, La re education des mutiles de la guerre. 
 La Revue meridianate des Idees, Novembre, 1916, Mont- 
 pellier ; La perfectionnement des appareils orthopediques pour 
 re-education professionnelle. Bulletin de 1'ceuvre des Mutiles 
 de la guerre de la XVI region, ist, Octobre, 1916, Mont- 
 pellier. See also Dr. Jearbrazz, L'Ecole professionnelle 
 des blesses de la XVI region a Montpellier. Pamphlet 
 96 p., 1916. Montpellier. 
 
BELGIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION 199 
 
 Belgian methods of technical education ; at 
 the very time when Charleroi was being bombarded 
 by the enemy, its influence was shining across 
 the world, its initiative was being associated with 
 France in the great work of rescuing the men 
 who had returned from the war ' incomplete/ 
 and restoring them to work and to society. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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